Bones and Stones: Deviation
by Nox23
Summary: Book1 of Deviation Series.Didn't like what Amelia did in prologue2 of Bones & Stones? Spoiler alert: she takes a different path. AU. Harry grows up with an actual family.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer**: I don't own any of these characters, but that would be cool. Not that I'm into slavery, but it would be fun. The world is JK Rowling's, strictly. I don't make any money off of this.

**A/N** So this project splits off in the next chapter from my other fic, Bones and Stones. I did some minor changes to this prologue, but it is mostly the same one from the other fic.

* * *

James had been contained in this home for what seemed like forever, but Halloween night was looking like one of the good nights. Along with Lily, he had wanted to dress Harry up and take him around Godric's Hollow to do some muggle trick-or-treating, but they knew that it would make them an easy target for a certain mass-murderer and the victims of a lecture from Dumbledore even if they had left the house and not been killed.

At least Harry was enjoying himself. Earlier he had broken his toy broomstick after trying to push it to its limit of speed. The thing started to smoke and buck around like a raging bull. After a few seconds of James and Harry laughing and Lily going crazy with worry, it finally died and fell to the ground, never to be ridden again. Between James' proud announcements of his son's speed being too much for any toy broomstick and Lily's mumblings about how dangerous the whole thing could have been, plus the sadness of losing his broomstick, Harry's confusion sent him into a crying fit.

James took action at the sight of his son in despair, picking him up and taking him to the sitting room. He then took out his wand and started making multicolored sparks in the air in front of Harry. The boy instantly ceased his crying and looked in wonder at the colors in front of him. Tears dried up as the baby's laughter rang through the house, warming James and Lily's spirits.

"Not bad, are they, miss Charms whiz?" James asked his wife, who had been watching them from the doorway to the kitchen.

"I do believe I could do better, actually."

"Is that so? Well then, we'll have to have little spark-off to see who is the champion then. Harry here will be the judge. Won't you, Harry?" He waved his wand and made a large display of mini-fireworks appear, flying around Harry in the shape of a large golden snitch, making him go ecstatic.

"You're on, Mister Potter." She pulled out her wand and started to walk towards her husband and son. When she got to them, she lovingly planted a kiss on each of their cheeks, then had a thought. "I'll be back. I think some sweets for our judge will be just the trick to seal a victory." She left her wand on the ground and headed for the kitchen.

"Have to resort to bribery, do you? Bring it!" James also dropped his wand and grabbed Harry, holding him high into the air and looking up at him. "You're gonna pick your old man, right, Harry? No amount of kisses or sweets can trick you."

Then, the silence of the rest of the house was broken by the front door bursting open. 'Why the bloody hell is Peter just barging in?' thought James. Lily came into the room, a look of terror on her face as she and James realized the same thing.

James instinctively got up and headed for the hall, saying "Stay here" to his wife. His heart dropped as he got into the hall and looked towards the door.

There he was, standing in the doorway, wand out, a cold look of excitement in his eyes. Lord Voldemort had broken the Fidelius Charm and was coming down the hall towards him, towards Lily, towards Harry. He had to get them out of the way. They had to be safe.

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!" He watched Lily carry Harry up the stairs. He didn't want her to go up there, for there would be no exit, except maybe jumping out of a window. Would she be able to do that and get Harry and herself to safety? That would have to be the only option; they couldn't apparate inside the house. He looked back down the hall and saw that Voldemort was within cursing distance. James looked down at his hand and came to the horrifying realization that he had left his wand in the other room. No wand, with the murdering bastard laughing at him.

The next second was the longest of James' life. He thought of his loved ones as the wand was raised towards him in slow motion. Of his wife and son, both of whom had to be okay, had to escape; of his parents, who had passed on, and were watching over him, giving him strength in his final moments, as he had watched them in theirs; and of his friends, the ones with which he had formed that unbreakable bond with that day aboard the Hogwarts express so many years ago. He thought of Moony, where ever he was, who had trusted him and the others enough to tell them of his "furry little problem". He hoped, as Voldemort's mouth started to slowly shout the incantation, that he had been wrong, and that Remus had not betrayed him and Lily. He thought of Wormtail, always there, always loyal. He had a pang of worry for Peter; he had been secret keeper, meaning that the reason Voldemort was here, almost finished saying the curse, was because their location had come from his friend's mouth. It was impossible that Peter, so trustworthy, could betray him, so the location must have been tortured out of him. James hoped to god that Peter was okay, wherever he was. He thought of Padfoot, his best friend, best man, and godfather to his son. He hadn't seen his friend in so long, and he had expected to have more time with him after this whole Voldemort thing had been dealt with. He could hear Sirius now, jokingly making him feel guilty about not seeing him before dying. He'd never hear the end of it from the man who James could depend on for anything. He hoped that his brother would be okay, and that he'd take the fight to all who were behind taking Prongs down.

Finally, as everything in James' sight was overtaken by green light, his last thought was again of Lily and Harry. 'I love you, Lily. From the moment I saw you crying on the train, I didn't know it then, but I have always loved you. Thank you for loving me back, for giving me a chance. Please, protect him. Get him out of here. Harry needs to be okay. Please.'  
The spell finally hit him, and James Potter fell down the floor.

* * *

No. This wasn't happening. James wasn't dead; she had just imagined that flash of green light downstairs. They were still downstairs with Harry, making him laugh, enjoying the night, thinking about what they were going to dress their son as next Halloween, when they might be able to actually go out. She was going to beat James at entertaining Harry. They were going to wake up tomorrow morning, a family, still whole, still alive. She wasn't running into Harry's nursery, trying to barricade herself and Harry in the room with everything she could throw in front of the door.

But she was. This was real. Everything was real and she would have to fight and fight and fight some more to keep her son out of harm's way. She went to take down the protective spells off of the window, to escape through there, but it was with the most painful realization that she remembered she had left her wand back downstairs. She was trapped, and the door burst open to reveal him moments later. He smiled when he, too, realized she had no wand.

There was nothing she could do now. But Lily was not giving up. She had Harry in her arms and she was not going to go down without putting up a fight. Even if she had to beg with the Dark Lord standing here, she would do what she had to do for Harry to live. She put him down in the crib, turned back around, and put her arms up.. Voldemort had a look of intrigue on her face, turning his head sideways as a curious child would.

Lily started to beg and pleaded with Voldemort, "Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now," Voldemort said calmly. Why was he not killing her? James was surely dead downstairs; why wouldn't Voldemort finish them all off?

But none of that mattered right now. The bastard would have to kill her to get to Harry. She would stay in front of her son for eternity if that's what it took. She still begged the man. "Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead -"

"This is my last warning –" His eyes betrayed a look of annoyance, and Lily didn't think he was fully committed to sparing her.

But she would not give up; she would not move aside. Not until her heart stopped beating would she stop protecting her son. "Not Harry! Please ... have mercy ... have mercy ... Not Harry! Not Harry! Please - I'll do anything ..."

"Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!"

She wouldn't say anymore. She merely looked at him with a glare on her eyes. She came to a realization, and knew that Harry would be safe. She knew vaguely of the magic, but enough to understand what had to be done on her part. She kept her feet planted to the ground between Harry and Voldemort, challenging him with her eyes to kill her. Harry would not and could not be touched if she was struck dead for him. She was ready to die for her son.

Lily Potter's eyes were blinded by a flashing green light, and she dropped to the ground, her last thought a thought of victory over Voldemort; her son would be safe. She had protected him.

* * *

The dark figure near the door walked across the room and stepped over the mother's body to the crib. He looked down upon the boy, who had not cried this whole time, perhaps thinking that that the hooded figure was his father still playing with him. His playful expression disappeared when he looked under the hood, and the face he saw was not his father's.

This was it. He would be performing the spell one last time, and his number of soul containers, including his own body, would reach the most magically perfect number. How fitting that the death that brought about this most significant event was the so-called "one with the power to vanquish" him.

He undid the front of his robes, exposing the runes already drawn on his chest. His heart, or what was left of it, beat rapidly. He'd been waiting for this moment since Hogwarts. When he heard of the prophecy, he knew that this was the correct death to create this soul container with.

Slowly, he took out the item that would house the last portion of him, and the only one that he would keep on his person. He had stolen it from Ollivander's Wand Shop a few years earlier, as soon as he learned of its existence. He doubted the old fool even noticed it was missing, with all the clutter in that place. The core of this new holly wand was a feather that came from the same beast that supplied the core to his wand of so many years; apparently it had only ever given two.

A second wand, especially being the brother of his current one, was sure to make him even more deadlier. The fact that it was about to contain his soul made him almost giddy with anticipation to experiment with his new toy. Nobody, not even his most trusted servants, knew that he had acquired a second wand. Once he had accomplished this feat, he would reveal the new addition to his power. The world was his. The war was nearly won, the Ministry had nearly fallen, and this was a perfect time to bolster his abilities and drive the nail into the coffin of Albus Dumbledore and his little Order.

He said the incantation, a direct Latin translation of the phrase, 'I end your life, my soul is safe.' "Tuum vitae ego finem, mea anima est tutum." As he touched his yew wand to the largest rune on his chest, it glowed, and the others followed suit. They burned his skin, and the heat grew more and more intense, but he welcomed the pain and eventually the runes disappeared into his body. He would now just have to murder the child, then pull the new fragment of his soul out with his wand and direct it to the new wand.

He raised his arm, ready to strike, and took aim at the boy's forehead. He spoke the killing curse and filled the room with the green light that he was so accustomed to. Before he could go any further, everything stopped.

* * *

The inhabitants of Godric's Hollow were still out in the streets of the town, parents with children dressed up as ghouls, goblins, and ghosts. Some had sticks that they pretended were wands, shooting pretend spells at each other and laughing as they carried their candy bags around, their parents laughing at the silliness. The real witches and wizards that were partaking in the festivities were scattered amongst the crowd, very amused, as they were every year when muggles dressed up as things they knew to be real, asking for sweets. It was a strange holiday, but very fun every year.

Most everybody in the town, magic and muggle alike, passed in front of the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow without a glance, as none but old Bathilda Bagshot knew that the house existed. They saw the two houses on either side of it, but those two houses did not seem to have any space between them.

And suddenly, a blast. Green light blinded everyone within a hundred feet. People ran instinctively from the disturbance, grabbing their children to get them to safety. The witches and wizards, however, ran for another reason besides the volume and force of the blast. They saw the green light, and knew it could not be good.

A good five minutes was all it took for people to clear out, for Ministry of Magic officials to arrive to control the chaos, to see what had happened to make such an explosion occur between the two houses. But there was now an entire cottage between them. The charm keeping the Potter's house hidden was broken by the sheer force of whatever had transpired here. The right side of the top floor had been blown open, smoke rising from it. All was silent after a few more minutes on that stretch of road in Godric's Hollow as the Ministry officials and wizard families who stayed behind looked in shock at the rubble. All was silent, save for a baby's cry, coming from the hole in the top floor.

* * *

"Sirius!" Where was he? "Sirius Black?" Someone was calling his name. Sirius slowly returned to consciousness, opening his eyes to look up at the giant bearded figured above him.

"H-Hagrid. Hagrid, what happened? Where am I? " He managed to sit up.

Something was off about Hagrid. He was looking very uncomfortable, holding a bundle of something and looking around. Sirius had never seen Hagrid looking so grim. He finally answered. "Godric's Hollow."

"Godric's...James and Lily." He sat fully up. "Hagrid, are James and Lily okay?"

"Y-Yeh don' remember, do yeh? Few minutes ago yeh got here on yer motorbike. Yeh got off, and took two steps t'wards me before yeh saw – before yeh saw what happened." His voice cracked as he finished. "Yeh blacked out."

"W-What..." But Sirius didn't finish. He had turned around. The first thing he saw were the few Ministry officials still around, gathering witness statements and doing checks on James' house. The house. Merlin, what happened! Everything about it looked peaceful, save for the gigantic hole in the top floor, where Harry's nursery was.

"Sirius." Hagrid got his attention back, and Sirius' gaze snapped back to the gameskeeper.

"Where are they? Where are James and Lily, Hagrid?" But the sad, sad look in Hagrid's eyes told him all that he needed to know. "No. No!" growled Sirius as he flew off of the ground and ran to the house, pushing aside the officials that tried to stop him.

He knocked the door open and looked down the hall leading to the stairs. The lower level of the house looked like it had experienced a short earthquake. Shelves and paintings had fallen off the wall, a chair was knocked over, a pair a glasses lay on the ground by the stairs.

Slowly, he trudged down the hall, his eyes never leaving the glasses. When he got to them, he had no idea what to do, like a dog who had finally caught up to a car it had been chasing. Finally Sirius bent down and picked the glasses up. James' glasses. The ones that caused the markings around Prongs' eyes when he was in his animagus form. He squeezed the glasses in his hand, though not hard enough to break them. Tears filled his eyes and they flowed down his face. He lost count of how long he stood there.

After forever he looked up the stairs. He did not want to go up there, to see where the true damage had been done. He did not want to see what happened to Lily, he did not want to see what happened to Harry.

Harry. Sirius then turned and ran out of the house, out the door, and sporadically looked around for something he didn't want to see. To his left, about twenty-five feet away, three bodies were laying next to each other, covered by a tarp. He walked towards them, even slower than back in the hall, and stopped about five feet away from them, unable to make his feet move any more.

Sirius found a gigantic comforting hand on his shoulder. He and Hagrid stood in complete silence for a moment. Even when he spoke, he felt like he was in a haze, like he was watching himself in a film. Sounds were muffled by his shock, colors made duller by his grief.

"Where's Harry?"

"Here," said Hagrid. Sirius turned with lightening quickness at him. He slightly lifted the small bundle he had been holding, and lifted a corner of the blanket. In the bundle was little Harry, not a scratch on him, save for a lightening-bolt-shaped cut on his forehead. He was breathing.

Sirius was even more in shock. "How?"

"I don' know. Nobody knows."

"Who's the third body?" He pointed at the corpses underneath the tarp.

"It's 'im, Sirius."

"What? Who?"

"You-Know-Who"

"But h-"

"I don' know that either." This was too much. Voldemort had apparently killed James and Lily, but died before he could kill Harry. How was this possible?

Hagrid continued. "Dumbledore doesn' even know what happened, but I think he's got some ideas. He sen' me to pick up Harry for 'im. Looks like he's to go to Lily's sister."

At this, Sirius snapped his head to Hagrid. "What? Hagrid, let me take Harry. I'm his Godfather, it's what James and Lily wanted."

"I'm sorry, Sirius. I've got me orders. I'm to keep him at a safehouse for day or two, let things cool down a bit. You-Know-Who may be dead, but there're still the Death Eaters to round up."

Sirius was furious at first. This couldn't even be legal, taking Harry away from him. Nevertheless, he knew that it would be near impossible to convince Hagrid to disobey an order from Dumbledore.

"Okay, Hagrid. I'll talk to Dumbledore later. Take the motorcycle, it'll be a lot faster." He handed him the key to the bike.

"Thanks," Hagrid said. "Was gonna take the Knight Bus. Would have been a pretty tight squeeze." He put his hand back on Sirius' shoulder when he saw him returning his sad gaze to the corpses in front of him. "At leas' the man responsible is dead too, Sirius. I know 's not gonna bring 'em back, but justice was quick this time. It's over." And he took Harry and left.

'Not yet, it isn't,' thought Sirius. This shouldn't have happened. Peter was meant to protect James and Lily, to keep the Fidelius Charm strong by remaining silent. Sirius never thought Peter would betray them, but here in front of him were the bodies of two of his best friends, and in Hagrid's arms, on the way to his terrible aunt, was their now orphaned son.

It was supposed to be easy. Sirius would draw the attention, but whatever they did to him, he could never tell James and Lily's location, even if he had wanted to. The only way anyone would ever assume that Peter was the Secret-Keeper was to go after Sirius first and find out that it wasn't him, but nobody had attacked him, something that was curious at first, but now made complete sense.

It was Peter all along. He was feeding secrets to the Death Eaters and lies to the Order, making them believe that Remus was the traitor. As soon as he was made Secret-Keeper, he went straight to Voldemort and told him, which explained why nobody bothered with Sirius.

And because of Wormtail's treachery, whatever the reason for it, here laying before Sirius were James and Lily Potter, covered by a tarp, motionless, soundless, lifeless.

And Peter would soon be joining them.

* * *

What was Peter going to do? His protection was gone with the Dark Lord, who was apparently now dead. What had gone wrong? It was supposed to be clean and easy: the Dark Lord would ambush the Potters and take care of the baby, and then Peter would be protected from the reactions of the Order.

Sirius would certainly be coming to kill him. Maybe Remus would be too. Peter left his home the second he heard about the explosion at the Potters', where James and Lily were killed, where only little Harry survived, where rumors were born that the Dark Lord was gone too, unable to complete the assassination of the baby.

He ran. He changed into rat form and scurried down the road, hoping that nobody would give notice to a rat running about in an otherwise very clean neighborhood. But he had no idea where to go. Any place that was usual for him would be out of the question; Sirius would look in those places first. Locations ran through his head as his little legs carried him as fast as they could. Then he thought of it.

The Order. That's how he would get away. He'd go to an Order member, blame this all on Sirius, and go into their protection. The very people he had been betraying for so long were going to protect him. It was so easy. Sirius was supposed to be Secret-Keeper, and the fact that they switched was unknown to all but the Potters, who were dead and Sirius, who would hopefully be locked up very soon. The rat continued down the road. He had planning to do.

* * *

The full day of searching did nothing to calm him, nothing to help him think rationally. Sirius spent all day going to every place he could think of to ambush Peter, but to no avail. His flat, Diagon Alley, and even Hogwarts were rat-free today.

Though he previously couldn't fathom the idea of murder, he now had an understanding of why people killed. He wanted Peter's worthless life to end, to be the one who stopped his breathing. He had nothing left, now that Harry was gone to live with his aunt. He couldn't even show his face to Dumbledore until he found Peter and brought him back to prove they had given the role of Secret-Keeper to that traitorous bastard. Even if he could prove that Peter was the one to betray the Potters, he didn't even know if he could convince Dumbledore to let him raise Harry. It was strange that he would pick the Dursleys to get the boy, so the Headmaster must have had another reason to keep him there.

Without James, without Lily, and now without Harry, Sirius didn't have a reason to exist anymore, save for ending the life of Peter Pettigrew. He would worry about what was next after the rat's last breath left his mouth.

The dog was searching in Hogsmeade when he stopped walking and held his nose up to the air. There was the scent. He wasn't in rat form, but he could still smell him as a rat. It was a disgusting scent, but Padfoot pressed on until he saw the dead man enter the Hog's Head, which would unfortunately be the final place Pettigrew would be seen alive. The dog walked into a dark alley near the bar , and a second later Sirius peered around the corner, wand out and ready.

* * *

It had taken nearly twenty-four hours of thinking of the best way to go about his trickery, but Peter thought he had it figured out. He had camped out in a gutter for the night, then in the morning decided to first try Diagon Alley to search for Order members on patrol. However, it was hard to find anyone in the celebrating crowds, all drunk with happiness at the Dark Lord's defeat.

After a long day of still attempting to find some Order member, Peter had almost thought of going to Dumbledore before laughing at himself. He could not come into direct contact with Dumbledore; he had a strange feeling about that eye-twinkling thing that he did, almost thinking that the old man could read minds. Mad-eye Moody would have to be shunned as well, as the man's magical eye could certainly see through Peter's sleeve to find the Dark Mark on his arm. He had been lucky that the fool hadn't thought to look there before, but not again, not now that James and Lily were dead. People were going to be on the lookout for the traitor, and Peter had to make sure all fingers pointed to Sirius.

He decided to seek the help of the bartender at the Hog's Head, Aberforth. Hopefully the old man could get Peter into hiding without having to deal with Dumbledore or Mad-Eye.

He apparrated into Hogsmeade, and made his way to the bar, passing the numerous shops, including his own. He stopped in front of it. He was Peter Pettigrew, a shopkeeper, just like his father. His father, a great man, killed by the Death Eaters Peter had sold his friends out to. Had he done the wrong thing, not just by Lily and James and Harry, but by his own father?

No. Peter was surviving. He would not sit around and wait to be killed, even if it meant betrayal, even if it meant siding with his father's murderers. His father wouldn't want him to die, so he was doing what his father would have wanted him to do. He kept walking and found himself in front of the Hog's Head. This was where he had to put on his acting face.

He walked into the pub. Without looking up from cleaning glasses to see who it was, the bartender asked dryly, "Shouldn't you be out celebrating? Surely everyone is at more festive establishments than this one." Then he looked up and saw who it was. "Pettigrew. Sorry to hear about your friends. They were extremely brave."

Brave? No. Lily and James were good people, but they were stupid for joining the wrong side, not brave. But Peter, on cue, started to tear up. "They... they didn't deserve it. He...betrayed...He betrayed them!" Peter screamed the last bit with all his might, starting to feign sobbing.

"Who betrayed them?"

"Sirius. We all trusted him and he sold Lily and James out to the Death Eaters. He was one himself! Had us all fooled from the beginning! And now he's coming after me!"

Aberforth sighed. "What do you need, son? I can hide you upstairs, until I contact Albus and tell him to find Black and turn him over to the aurors. Do you need a place to stay?"

"Y-yes, p-p-please." Peter was impressing himself with the acting. He sat down at a table and buried his face in his arms, sobbing hard.

A look of pity washed over Aberforth's face. "I'll go get a room ready upstairs and fire-call Albus to set him on Black. Stay here." And he left upstairs.

Peter stopped his act and smiled. This was perfect. He fooled Aberforth, and Sirius would be arrested very soon. Tonight could even be the night, if it was Dumbledore himself searching for Sirius. He laughed at his own luck and stuck his head back up to look at the window of the pub.

And Sirius Black was looking back at him.

* * *

Sirius blasted the door of its hinges. "Expelliarmus!" The rat didn't have a wand now, and he was about to lose a lot more. "Hello, Peter. Funny I should run into you here. You see, I just visited James and Lily's place last night. Don't know if you heard but they're not doing so good at the moment. Dead, actually." Sirius let out a dark chuckle. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, now, would you? Because I happen to recall you being the one to be responsible for protecting James' family, Peter."

"S-Sirius!" Peter was shouting towards the door leading to the stairs that went to the next story. Sirius guessed he was trying to call for help. He continued screaming at the door. "What are you doing -"

"Silencio sermo!" And Peter was cut off. "No words from you tonight, Peter. I do want to hear you scream, though. So I cut off only your ability to talk." After silencing the doorways up the stairs and out to the street to keep the precious sounds of the rat's screams in, Sirius walked behind Peter's chair. The fat coward was too scared to turn around to look at him. "Reducto!" The chair beneath the rat was destroyed, and his head bounced off the end of the table before he hit the floor. Sirius then silently hovered a painting from the wall and sent it crashing to Peter, then he levitated Peter himself and flung him into the wall.

Peter squirmed on the floor, groaning, unable to form words. "Weak. Weak, weak ,weak," Sirius said with every step he took towards the rat. "Is that why you betrayed us, Peter? Were you just too afraid that your weakness would get you killed by the big, bad Death Eaters?"  
Sobbing was all the pitiful rat could do on the floor. Sirius, well aware of the crazed look in his eyes, walked a few steps away, putting his wand behind him and thinking strongly, 'Levicorpus!' and the fat lump was now levitating in midair, held up by one ankle. He slashed at the air with a cutting curse, which hit Pettigrew's arm, then sent a bludgeoning hex at his face. Screams were mixed in with the sobs. Sirius relished in Peter's pain. "You're pitiful, Peter. You'll always gravitate towards those stronger than you, even if it means betraying those who would have put their lives on the line for you. You have no reason to live. You don't even deserve to suffer like this, so I'm going to put you out of your misery. Goodbye, Peter. Avada -"

"Depulso!" The unexpected voice had come from behind the bar, and Sirius was knocked onto the ground, though he was able to hold on to his wand. Peter dropped onto the floor with a crack and began rolling around in more pain. Sirius tightened the grip on his wand and shot up to face his new enemy. He was staring down his wand at Aberforth Dumbledore, the Hog's Head's bartender.

The two stared at each other, daring one another to make a move, until Aberforth shouted, "Pettigrew! Get out of here." The rat did not hesitate, grabbing his wand and disapparrating.

Sirius had him, and he lost him. He let out a frustrated roar and was about to curse Aberforth into oblivion, but the old man said, "Easy, Black. Put the wand down."

Put it down? Not until it had ended Pettigrew's life. "You don't understand, he's getting away!"

"Yes, why don't you go and get him, then? And while you're at it, I can go and fetch your werewolf friend and you can kill him as well. Nothing like a completed set of betrayed friends, is there?"

Sirius knew that what he was planning wasn't going to make him look any more innocent, nor was the insane demeanor that he was certainly displaying, but he didn't have time to waste trying to convince some old fool of his innocence. "I'm sorry," he said, and silently thought, 'Accio mug." Aberforth grunted as a glass flew into his head from behind on its way to Sirius. He disapparated before the glass could get to him, and it burst into shards on the opposite wall.

Sirius appeared on the other side of Hogsmeade, in an alley near Honeydukes. He had to figure out where Peter had gone. Merlin, he was so close! Another three syllables and his mission would have been complete. He couldn't fret on it now, though, not when the rat was scurrying about somewhere. Where could he have gone?

He knew that it was hard to just apparate to a random faraway place as instantly as Peter had disappeared when Aberforth told him to. It took thought to apparate, so Peter was at one of the first places to come to his mind, or someplace not very far, as Sirius had just gone to. Knowing the rat, Sirius thought that Peter would want cover and protection. There was a muggle village not far from Hogsmeade; he would have to start there.

He turned on the spot and found himself in the town square of the village. Ready to curse himself if he was wrong about Peter's location, he started to search the streets. There was some festival happening, so it definitely fit the need for cover that Sirius assumed Peter needed.

After finding nothing for five minutes, he resorted to turning into Padfoot and searching with his nose. Sure enough, the rat's scent was here. The trail of smell led Padfoot to a nearby neighborhood, where it looked like families were walking back from the festival. And there in the middle of the street, limping and out in the open like an idiot, was Wormtail.

The dog turned back into a man, out of the sight of any muggles. Then he took off in a sprint to the traitor.

"Peter!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. He now had the attention of every muggle on the street. "Peter Pettigrew!" The rat looked backward and with a child's whimper tried to limp away even faster, but it was pointless. Sirius was twenty, fifteen, ten yards away from him now. He sent a tripping jinx Peter's way, which helped the rat eat a load of concrete.

Sirius approached Peter slowly, the crazy smile on his face not going anywhere. He prepared his wand for the fatal blow as Peter got up and faced Sirius. Evidently the speechlessness jinx had worn off, and he spoke.

"L-Lily and James, Sirius. How could you!"

"Oh, no you don't," said Sirius in a dangerously low voice. He started for Pettigrew, but with a flick of the traitor's wand from behind his back, he was thrown back by a deafening explosion.

All was quiet for a moment, except for the ringing in Sirius' ears. For the second time in twenty four hours, he opened his eyes and sat up. To his horror, more than a dozen bodies, men, women, and children alike, littered the ground. He was the first one to rise, as everybody else stayed down, injured or worse.

And there, straight ahead, was Peter Pettigrew, with the most vile, gut-wrenching grin that had ever graced his face. Sirius wanted to stand up and finish him, punish him for the damage he had done both last night and tonight, but his muscles were aching and he was still in shock from Peter's spell, so he couldn't do more than sit up and watch everything happen in a haze.

With the silver glint of a knife and a painful gasp, Peter removed his own finger, which dropped to the floor along with a stream of blood. Sirius was confused beyond belief at what was going on, but it slowly came to him as Peter waved to goodbye him and transformed into the rat that he truly was. And as the sense of hearing came back to Sirius, all that he heard for a few seconds were the tiny feet of the rodent who betrayed them all, left James and Lily to be murdered, Harry orphaned, and all of these people hurt or dead. Wormtail was gone.

The only thing Sirius could do at this point was think how funny this all was. They trusted him, never once gave a second glance at his loyalty, not only because he was their friend of almost ten years, but because they didn't think he was strong enough to pose a threat to them. He volunteered Peter for the job of Secret-Keeper because he thought that nobody would even think about him as strong enough to hold such a secret. And here was the demonstration of Peter's true power, the pile-up of bodies over the past 24 hours. Peter the rat. Peter the traitor. Wormtail the Death Eater. Wormtail the murderer.

Sirius chuckled. It was funny, when he thought about it. He didn't know why, and could never explain it, but it was funny. The chuckling turned into a furious laughter, and soon he was back to laying on his back, screaming with it. All he could think to do was laugh, so that's all he did, when people started waking up and screaming for their dead loved ones. Ministry Officials arrived on the scene, not knowing what to do with him.

* * *

Godric's Hollow, November 2nd 1981

For the muggles living in Godric's Hollow, the strangest crowds had been showing up ever since yesterday, the day after Halloween. Nobody had recollection of the awful explosion at the Potter residence the night before, but the crowds kept coming and staring at what non-magical beings saw as just a vacant lot.

Ministry of Magic officials had gone door to door altering the minds of all muggles in Godric's Hollow, making it common knowledge around the village that some ancient event happened at the spot that the lot now occupied, which was the reason it was so packed with visitors and would be for the foreseeable future. But they also were charmed to not have any interest whatsoever in what the event was or in talking to any of the visitors.

The second of November was the second day that hordes of Witches and Wizards gathered in the front of the Potter residence to see the place where He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had finally fallen. The house appeared to be fine, except for the big hole in the top floor, where it happened, where You-Know-Who had perished.

All eyes were on the large hole, so when a rat scurried across the yard to the house, nobody paid any attention to it. The rat went around to the back of the house where he wouldn't be seen and suddenly changed into his human form.

Wormtail rummaged through his pockets until he found the spare key that the Potters had given him in case of emergencies. He let himself in the back door and went up the stairs of the Potter residence. He paused at the door of Harry's nursery, where it had all happened.

This was the tricky part. Keeping his back to the wall of the hallway, Wormtail aimed his wand into the room, careful not to let anyone see it through the hole in the wall. He concentrated hard and thought, 'Accio Dark Lord's Wand.' The wand flew past his own and hit the wall opposite Wormtail, and he felt success when no excitement could be heard outside due to a flying wand; nobody had seen it.

He bent down and picked it up, careful not to do anything crazy with it. Such a powerful wand surely wouldn't work right for him. With an accomplished smile on his face, Wormtail stuck his master's wand in his jacket pocket and went back down to the backyard before changing back into his rat form. All he would have to do was hide the Dark Lord's wand somewhere safe, somewhere only he would know it was, and then there would be no way to prove his involvement in the deaths of the Potters and those people on the street. The Dark Lord himself had given Peter his dark mark, so he didn't want Ministry people going into the history of the wand and finding out that he was a Death Eater. It was sheer luck that nobody who inspected the house in the last day-and-a-half had happened upon it. It also provided him with a way to curry favor with his master if there was the chance he returned.

The name of Pettigrew would remain untarnished; he was assumed dead, a hero who confronted the man responsible for his friends' deaths, and paid the ultimate price. There was even talk of being awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class. Not that bad. Sure, he could never see his mother again, never show his human face anymore, and would most likely need to stay in rat form for the rest of his life, but he was alive, and he would rather be a breathing rat than a stupid fool who died for a stupid cause.

On the way out of the yard, he was so distracted with his satisfaction in the way things turned out that he didn't watch where he was going, and ran into the small foot of someone in the front row of the large crowd in front of the yard. He tried to hurry away, but he was suddenly picked up by the child he had run into.

"Hi," said the boy. He had blazing red hair, and glasses, and couldn't have been more than five years old. "I'm –"

"Percy, what do you have there?" asked the boy's mother, who had the same red hair. Wormtail recognized her as the Prewett twins' younger sister, Molly Weasley. Percy quickly opened his jacket and shoved Wormtail into the inside pocket, saying, "Nothing, mum." Miraculously the woman didn't notice anything.

"Are they in there, mum?" asked another red-headed boy. Wormtail had counted four other children present before he was shoved in Percy's pocket. Two were younger than Percy, and two looked older, but none were quite Hogwarts-age. The one who had spoken was the younger-looking of the older ones. "Are the Potters and You-Know-Who in there?"

"No, Charlie, they've been taken away by the Ministry," said a male voice, who Wormtail assumed to be Molly's husband. "I still can't believe it. The Potters were such good people, and so young. It's a blessing that You-Know-Who's gone, but that doesn't make up for the loss."

"And their poor baby," said Molly. "Parents gone and godfather in Azkaban. I heard he's been adopted by muggles, oh the poor, poor, child."

"He should come and live with us!" piped up the oldest child. "What's one more Weasley kid?"

His father gave a low grunt that was almost a chuckle. "Hmm, I don't think it works that easy, Bill. Maybe little Harry will be better off away from all the attention he'd get in this world.

"Attention he deserves," said a bystander in the crowd. "The kid vanquished You-Know-Who at just a year old! He'll be greater than Dumbledore, even!"

"We'll see," Molly said softly to her husband. "According to Dumbledore, You-Know-Who may still be alive out there, just too weak to go on. Let us hope that it's just paranoia on Albus' part."

The Weasleys stayed quiet after hearing Dumbledore's fears, and after a few moments of Wormtail spacing out, he heard Mr. Weasley say, "Molly, I think the twins are starting to get tired. Maybe we should get home. The sitter's probably going crazy with Ron and Ginny."

"You're probably right. Come on, boys." Wormtail freaked out shortly as Percy moved to follow his family out of the crowd and back home. Then the boy spoke to him. "Glad mum didn't see you, she'd probably freak. You'll like the Burrow, Scabbers."

And as the newly named Scabbers wondered where the stupid name had come from and tried to fathom how he had just become a pet, he thought about the situation at hand. His master might possibly be out biding his time, waiting to get stronger, and that would be when Wormtail would return. He would be living amongst a Wizard family, one in league with Dumbledore, so news of the Dark Lord's return, if it ever happened, would reach him quickly.

And even if that never happened, the promise of being fed and taken care of kept Scabbers happy. The lone one of his friends to come out of this whole thing for the better. Sirius would rot in Azkaban, and Remus would spend his life thinking Peter was the saint who went down bravely, like James and Lily. He would not have to worry about a thing until his master returned and he could have the glory he had been promised when he became a Death Eater. Life was good.

Still in the nursery, buried under rubble, having been taken unworthily from its maker and therefore not belonging to the Dark Lord and not able to be summoned with the words Wormtail had used, was the holly and phoenix feather wand, still in need of a wizard to choose.

**A/N **Hope I kept it interesting. Let me know if I did or not! Thanks!


	2. Interrogation

******Disclaimer**: I don't own any of these characters, but that would be cool. Not that I'm into slavery, but it would be fun. The world is JK Rowling's, strictly. I don't make any money off of this.

**A/N **About halfway through this, Amelia will make a different decision than she did in the other fic, and this fic will explore how that affects Harry's life. Enjoy!

* * *

**Thursday, October 1st, 1981**

Amelia Bones looked into her glass of fire-whiskey. How could things go so wrong so quickly? The ambitious auror was on one of the quickest runs through the Ministry ladder in its history, becoming one of the youngest Head Aurors ever just a year ago at the age of 21. She had done this by adhering to the no-nonsense beliefs of the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Bartemius Crouch. Quickly becoming his favorite trainee was a feat in itself, as it was hard for him to even notice new recruits that had less than five years Ministry experience. She was upgraded to Auror after just six months of training, and her performance in this war had her climbing higher and higher up the chain of command, luckily gaining more respect than resentment from her colleagues. Now, the retirement of Millicent Bagnold had Crouch eying her spot of Minister of Magic, and he had been dropping hints that Amelia had a shot at replacing him as department head if she kept up the good work, which nobody doubted would happen.

Not that it was easy to perform well in the Wizarding War. Voldemort was by all accounts almost successful in his conquest of Magical England. If it hadn't been for the leadership of her, Alastor Moody, who could have been her competition for the DMLE Head job if he wasn't a complete nut-job, and Rufus Scrimgeour, her mentor and actual competition for the job, the dark wizard would probably have won a lot more key battles and might have already taken down the Ministry. And Albus Dumbledore's "secret" vigilante society dedicated to fighting the Dark Lord was quickly losing its best leaders. She was certain that "Mad-Eye" Moody was a part of the dwindling group, though she had no solid proof.

That was the reason for her interest in the amber liquid in front of her. Normally she wouldn't touch the stuff, especially so close to one of the biggest possible promotions in her career. That ship sailed late last week, on her niece Susan's birthday. She had taken the new 2-year-old out for the day, playing with her at the park, buying her toys, and getting her ice cream for the first time, something that she had made Susan promise her parents would never find out. They drove around in Amelia's muggle car and they blasted the radio, having the time of their lives on the way to her birthday party. Susan's parents were Anna, a muggle pediatrician, and Robert, a Gringott's curse-breaker and Amelia's brother. They were waiting at their house, along with Amelia's other brother, Edgar, also a curse-breaker, and their parents. Edgar's family was also there, his wife and two twin sons, who were a year away from Hogwarts.

While she wasn't supposed to know, she had suspicions that Edgar had been in Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix, just like her suspicions about Mad-Eye. She had a few school friends that she knew were part of the Order, but they changed the subject whenever she tried to ask about Edgar. Every time she had tried to confront her brother about it, he would tell her not to worry. Amelia knew that her career fighting Dark Wizards was dangerous as well, but it also came with the best protection possible, but she had no idea how the Hogwarts headmaster was taking care of her brother and his family. Although she was the youngest sibling, she still found herself worried about her brothers due to her career in law enforcement.

That day, driving around the town with Susan, Amelia had been having a blast. The little kid was just a bundle of joy, and had the most infectious laugh. She drummed on the wheel as she drove, while Susan sung at the top of her lungs from her car seat. Amelia wasn't close to being married whatsoever, had barely dated anybody while making her way through her promotions at work, and kids were far down the road for her, if at all, but if her future kids were anything like Susan, she would definitely be willing to have one or two later on.

As they approached the area of her brother's house, she got the most sickening feeling she had ever experienced. In the general vicinity of where Robert lived, the dreaded green symbol of a snake and a skull floated in the sky. Letting out a gasp, she pressed her foot on the gas and sped all the way to the house. She kept trying to soothe a crying Susan, but it was hard to focus on driving and calming her niece down while unable to take her eyes off of the mark as she got closer. When she got into the neighborhood, her fears were confirmed.

She floored it the last few hundred feet and skidded to a stop in front of the house. She then had to calm down Susan before going in. "Susan, darling? Susan are you okay?" The toddler nodded, sniffling.

"What is that thing up there, auntie?"

"It's nothing, sweetheart." It took all she had to not break down. "Auntie has to go in to check on your mum and dad, okay? They might not be feeling well and I just need to make sure they're okay and then I'll come and get you."

Susan sniffed again but nodded. She was being so strong. "I love you Auntie."

Amelia held in her screams of terror and anguish for the child. She kissed her forehead and got out of the car. After putting a quick notice-me-not charm on herself and the car, she put a half-dozen more basic wards on the car to protect her niece from straggling Death Eaters, though Amelia was sure that the Dark Mark meant they had gone and left no survivors out of her family. She entered the house, and her life would never be the same.

So she sat in the sitting room of her house in Little Whinging, which she had bought a few days ago. She had remembered that Lily Potter had told her that Privet Drive and the surrounding neighborhood were nice, if you got past Lily's dreadful sister, who Amelia never bothered to introduce herself to. She had felt the need to buy a house in a safe and quiet muggle neighborhood after she returned from her family's will readings at Gringott's. She inherited a lot of gold, which she already had plenty of, and title of head of the Bones family, but the most surprising bequest had come from Robert and Anna's will. After Edgar and his wife, they had named Amelia as Susan's guardian. It had taken what seemed like forever to even comprehend it.

The little girl was upstairs in her new room, hopefully comfortable. She had taken all of this so strongly, it was probably the only reason Amelia hadn't had a mental breakdown yet. It was also the reason she took the whole glass of the untouched fire-whiskey and poured it into a nearby pot. She sighed and went upstairs to her room, stopping at Susan's room. The image of the child asleep in bed erased all doubts of her willingness to be a parent right now. She would be the mother that Susan deserved, even if it meant turning down the DMLE Head job.

* * *

**Sunday, November 1st, 1981**

The first month went as well as could be expected. Susan had accepted what happened to the family with strength unheard of in a two-year-old. Of course she cried for the first few hours after being sat down and told that bad men had taken her parents, grandparents, uncle, aunt, and cousins away, and they weren't coming back. But the next day, it was Amelia crying on the couch and Susan comforting her, tell her auntie that everything would be okay.

Learning how to be a parent proved easier with the help of Amelia's best friend Andromeda Tonks and her husband Ted, who had a six-year-old daughter. They were two years older than Amelia, and Andromeda filled a big-sister role that Amelia didn't have growing up with two brothers. Both of them were as ambitious and success-driven as anyone in Hogwarts, something that was evidenced by their many successes in both of their short Ministry careers, but their many close friends in other houses and the fact that Andi had married a muggle-born Hufflepuff boy killed their chances of making friends with their fellow Slytherins.

Amelia finally returned home the night after Halloween. She apparated into the backyard and let herself in through the sliding door before collapsing onto the couch. What a day. Yesterday would go down in Wizarding history as the day Lord Voldemort finally died, seemingly inexplicably. Today would go down in Amelia's history as not only her busiest work day ever, but also the day after her friends, Lily and James Potter, were murdered.

Amelia hoped that the Potters' sacrifices would be recognized as much as the Dark Lord's fall, but she wasn't foolish. The public would look back on Halloween and remember Voldemort's death 99 times out of 100, and the one odd time would be dedicated to the Potters' remembrance.

She was a year ahead of them at Hogwarts, and despite the occasional friendly banter about Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalries, they were all great friends, though not quite as close as James' inner circle of Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, or Lily's companionship with the Longbottoms or her own close bond with Sirius Black's cousin, Andromeda Tonks and her husband Ted.

Her friendship with the Potters grew even stronger when James became an auror trainee after graduating, along with Sirius. Due to the need to go into hiding, James' training was on hold, but Sirius had been become an auror a couple of months ago. Their large group had taken a huge blow last night, with rumors that Sirius Black was the one to betray the Potters and give Voldemort their location.

With a sigh she threw her head back and tried to make the best of the few hours she had been granted to come home and sleep. Susan was at the Tonks' house until tomorrow. Andi would be busy at the Ministry too but Ted had been one of the thousands of Wizards taking the day off and watched Susan and their daughter Nymphadora.

Sadly, sleep wasn't a luxury she could apparently afford tonight. Thoughts of the recent deaths couldn't escape her mind. First the Prewitt brothers, then her entire family, save Susan. The McKinnons were killed three weeks after that, and now a week later the Potters. And those were just the most significant names. They also happened to be people whom she either knew or assumed were all in Dumbledore's Order with Edgar, along with James' three friends and the Longbottoms, who were also in hiding. It was great that Voldemort was gone, but Amelia couldn't shake the feeling that horrible things would keep on coming. A lot of Death Eaters were still out there, and while some, like the Malfoys, were likely to cower away and pretend that they weren't acting of their own accord, there were those that were crazy enough to keep spreading horror, like Andi's sister Bellatrix Lestrange.

She decided to get some fresh air. With a wave of her wand, her Auror robes became muggle clothes. She exited her front door and started down the street, but was immediately put on alert. Someone had cut the lights in the neighborhood. Wand drawn, she disillusioned herself. She couldn't see her enemy, so they shouldn't be allowed to see her. In the distance, she could just make out the figures of three people. If one of them hadn't been the size of three men, she would have kept on assuming there was a Death Eater attack.

She stopped and stared, wondering what Dumbledore and his little band of merry men were doing in her neighborhood. Then her mind wandered to the rumors floating around. She hadn't been to the site of the Potter house herself, and hadn't been able to confirm the rumors, but she heard that there was a survivor of the massacre last night: James and Lily's son, Harry. How the baby had survived when all the adults were killed, including Voldemort, was beyond her.

It dawned on Amelia whose relatives also lived on this street. She also remembered the list that the Potters had made of places to send Harry if something happened to them. With the Dark Lord looking like he was focused on the couple as recruits, they knew that they had to get things in order quick. They made sure that their friends knew the whole thing. The list started with Sirius Black, but if it were true that he was a traitor and Death Eater, he was out. Next were Frank and Alice Longbottom, then Peter, then Remus. The list continued with Ted and Andi, and ended with Amelia herself. Apparently people saw some motherly qualities in her that she didn't see herself.

Nowhere in the list did Lily's sister come up, and if that didn't hurt the Dursleys' chances at getting the boy, it was the serious way that Lily had demanded that in no way was Harry to go to his aunt and uncle. They were horrible people that hated magic as if it were a disease.

Now Amelia's eyes narrowed. She didn't think the old man would be showing up to Privet Drive to pay his respects to Petunia Dursley and feel the need to turn the streetlights off. She got close enough to the house to see Dumbledore walking back from the door, leaving a small bundle on the doorstep. Accompanying the headmaster were his right-hand, Minerva McGonagall and, of course, Rubeus Hagrid, the giant groundskeeper that Amelia spotted from so far away. She was livid at what was happening, but she had to keep her cool. Dumbledore was technically guilty of kidnapping, so this was now work and it was her responsibility as an Auror to stop it.

Staying disillusioned, she approached the group. Dumbledore started to give instructions to his minions. "Minerva, I thank you for your advice in this matter. I shall fire-call you should I need any more assistance." The transfiguration professor nodded curtly and disapparated silently. "Hagrid, thank you for retrieving Harry and keeping him safe throughout the day. I may need you to find out where the giants are and see where their loyalties will fall now that it seems Voldemort has perished. Take the new motorbike of yours, that should make it easier."

"Aye, Professor Dumbledore. I apologize again for my ignorance las' nigh'. If I see that Sirius Black again..."

"Let me worry about that, Hagrid. Plus, I'm sure the aurors will find Black soon enough, isn't that right, Auror Bones?"

'Damn,' thought Amelia. 'How is the old geezer that good?' She reappeared with a smirk on her face, but her wand out and ready to aim if needed. "Professor Dumbledore, I think you forgot something on that doorstep. Also, as someone who knows that the list of little Harry's intended guardians that has been submitted to both Gringott's and the Ministry contains neither you nor his aunt, I believe you are guilty of kidnapping." The ever-loyal Hagrid had a guilty look on his face, but still appeared stiff as if he were ready to attack her to protect his leader. Amelia didn't falter as her wand aimed for Hagrid's face.

Dumbledore remained calm. The manipulative bastard thought he was going to weasel his way out of this. "Dear Amelia, I had hoped to visit you after this errand about my reasons for placing Harry with his blood relatives. May we retire to your residence and have a chat? The Dursleys can play babysitter until afterwards if you further wish to remove Harry from their care."

That seemed okay. If she had anything to do about it, Harry would never see his Aunt and Uncle after tonight. "Fine," she said. "We will not be aparrating. We will be walking so I can keep an eye on you. Hagrid, you can go, but stay where you can be contacted." The humongous man looked wary, but Dumbledore's look told him it was okay. He mounted the bike that she knew to be Sirius Black's and took off. "Shall we, Professor?" She waved her wand to motion Dumbledore to walk in front of her, and once he waved his own at the door of number 4 to make the doorbell ring, he complied. They disillusioned themselves so as not to draw attention, but she had the feeling they wouldn't be disturbed. He had likely put up muggle-repellling charms on the street. Before long a scream echoed through the neighborhood from Number 4. Apparently she wasn't the only one unhappy about Harry's new living arrangements.

Once inside her house, Amelia led Dumbledore to the couch. He sat obediently while she went to the fireplace and stood near it, glaring at him. "So?" she demanded. "Why is it that you feel the need to place an innocent child there with those people?"

"Amelia, this is all about Harry's protection. I fear that Lord Voldemort isn't gone for good, and I have a way to keep him safe."

"Yeah, you're real good at keeping people safe," she said quietly more as a reflex than a conscious response.

"Forgive me. I never went to see you after it happened, but believe me, if there was anything I could have done, it would have been done. Please don't let Harry's fate be affected by Edg-"

"_Don't _say his name!" Amelia was going to lose it if he was going to use her brother's memory to convince her. "I lost my whole family because of your stupid Order, Dumbledore. My niece will never see her parents again! Why did you have to let him into your little club? Edgar had a family, and you made him and them a target."

"Amelia, your brother knew the risks. He gave his life to fight the forces of evil that he knew would target his family. He told me himself that he was glad to do his part to make his sons' lives better."

"That's what Aurors are for!" She couldn't take his vigilante bullshit. "You can't just put together a band of witches and wizards and pit them against Voldemort. There's a reason vigilantes are frowned upon."

"He was one of the bravest people I knew," said Dumbledore, getting slightly off topic. She couldn't decide if she believed the tears welling up in his eyes. "So were Fabian, Gideon, Marlene, James, and Lily. I don't enjoy it, Amelia. It rips at my soul every time I learn of another casualty of this war, especially when it was me who was supposed to be leading them. I don't want that to happen to Harry."

Amelia was quiet for a minute before she asked in almost a whisper, "How is living there going to protect him?"

"I believe that the magic that saved Harry's life was created when Lily died. Judging by her body's position right in front of Harry's crib, it appears that she died protecting her son. When Voldemort then tried to kill Harry, his mother's sacrifice protected him from the killing curse. It bounced off and hit his attacker."

"I don't see how that means he has to live with them," said Amelia. He had better not be wasting her time.

"I'm getting there. I instructed Hagrid to retrieve Harry from Godric's Hollow last night and has been keeping him safe throughout the day. I put an enchanted blood ward on the letter attached to Harry's blanket, extended from Lily's sacrifice. If Petunia accepts Harry into her home, which I am sure that she will, it will activate a strong protective ward around her home, made possible by the fact that she is Harry's blood relative. Anybody wishing Harry harm will not be able to enter the boundary of the home. That is why Harry needs to remain with his aunt and uncle. If and when Voldemort returns, or even if he doesn't, Harry will be the absolute safest as long as he calls Number 4, Privet Drive his home. "

Amelia didn't say anything to Dumbledore for a while. She thought he may have had a point. Even so, Lily and James made their wishes clear. Sighing, she said, "Drink?" When he nodded, he had a smile on his face that suggested he thought he had won her over. She walked over to the other side of the room, and grabbed a bottle of matured mead. With her back to Dumbledore, she pulled a small circular mirror from the bottom of the bottle before pouring two glasses.

She had it there for emergencies, already disillusioned. This particular one was really only to communicate vocally. She got the idea from James and Sirius, who had created them during their Hogwarts days to help keep in touch during detention. They were the closest thing to muggle telephones that Amelia had seen. She had spared no expense getting a set for the team that she led in the auror department, and also suggested that Rufus Scrimgeour get mirrors for his team as well.

Keeping her back to the man, she said, "What about James and Lily's wishes, and the people that knew about them? They gave us all copies of that list of places for Harry. It specifically forbids the Dursleys from getting him. I'm not the only auror that they confided in. Rufus Scrimgeour's a family friend of James and he knows the Potters' wishes." Her use of Rufus' name should have made his mirror to shake and heat up, and once he accepted the call he'd be able to see, and more importantly, hear through Amelia's end.

"If somebody comes forward with concerns, I will let them know the importance, as I let you know. Harry needs to be with the Dursleys. It will be the safest for him."

She turned. Now she'd have to let Rufus know the situation. "I just don't think you'd be able to wiggle out of the law, Albus. You used your influence to convince Ministry employees at Godric's Hollow to let Hagrid take Harry for you, then decided to put him with Lily's relatives, the two people that she specifically asked not to bring her child to. That's enough for a kidnapping charge." She expected Rufus to be on his way here now. She wouldn't activate the anti-apparition wards on her home until he arrived. It would be just a few seconds, if everything worked out.

"Sometimes, laws must be broken for the greater good, Amelia. With none of the other families would Harry be safer. I feel like I am repeating myself. Are you going to let me keep Harry at Number 4 or –" He was interrupted by the crack of Rufus arriving.

Amelia quickly shouted "Incarcerous!" at the headmaster, but he rolled on the couch to dodge the ropes. As Rufus threw a stunner that Albus shielded, she pointed her wand in the air and silently activated the wards in place to prevent anyone from apparating or portkeying into or out of the house. A burst of flame appeared over the old man, and Amelia knew what was coming.

Quickly, she conjured a stone and banished it towards the phoenix, which had to dodge it. That would have been Dumbledore's ticket out of the home. Fawkes began flying around the room, throwing fireballs at the two aurors trying to arrest his master. Now it was Amelia throwing subduing curses at Albus while Rufus covered her from the phoenix's attacks.

At first, Dumbledore had only been on the defensive, but Amelia didn't let her guard down, so when he finally sent a spell at her she had her shield charm ready, though his spell and her shield canceled each other out and she was knocked down from the force. Rufus switched his aim to Albus to protect her, but that led to a window for Fawkes, who quickly swooped down to his master. With a yell of frustration, Amelia watched their target disappear in flames.

"We've got to get to Number 4, Rufus," she said as she got to her feet. "He might head over there to grab Harry." She took down her wards and the two of them turned on the spot and reappeared on the street in front of the Dursley's house.

It didn't look like Dumbledore was there. Amelia had Rufus stop before he reached the property. "Dumbledore put a blood ward on the house. It was meant to protect Harry. Do you think it will keep us out?" She wasn't an expert on wards. She had the ones on her home put up by the Gringott's goblins. Rufus was a lot more schooled on the subject.

"What I do know about blood wards is they are extremely strict but only follow specific guidelines. If what he said was true and the ward was meant to protect the child, we should be able to enter, since neither want to do any harm to the boy. Ladies first."

"Such a gentleman," she said dryly. "And if you're wrong and I get blasted back?"

"I'll issue you a sincere apology."

Amelia shook her head as started forward slowly. When she was able to step on the driveway, they both ran to the door. An unlocking charm let them in and they saw Lily's sister and her husband in the sitting room, with Vernon standing and Petunia on the couch, and Harry on the other end of it, still sleeping in his blankets. Petunia still had the letter from Dumbledore in her hand.

"Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Dursley," began Rufus. "We are from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Tell me, did Albus Dumbledore just come through here?"

"What the devil are you freaks doing in my house?" asked the very large man loudly. When Harry was woken up by the shout and started crying, Vernon didn't seem to care. Amelia looked at Petunia, who didn't even move; she just looked at the boy, slightly scared. If it had been her own son, Petunia probably would have already had him in her arms.

Amelia glared in disgust and started forward. She picked him up and started to calm him down. Thanks to Andi, her parenting skills had flourished. Within a few minutes, Harry went back to sleep in her arms.

Rufus cleared his throat. "I'll ask again, Mr. Dursley. Albus Dumbledore is now a wanted man. Did he come through here just now?"

"H-he dropped the boy off," said Petunia. "What did he do?"

"Kidnapping," Amelia answered. "Lily and James made it clear who was and wasn't allowed to take care of Harry in the event of their death. You weren't in the group that was allowed, and Albus took him here anyway."

"Good," spat Vernon. "We didn't want him anyway."

"Where will he go?" Petunia asked.

'Like you even care.' Amelia hesitated and looked at Rufus before answering. "There are a few of the Potters' friends that made the list. There's a married couple that Lily was close with throughout school. They're likely to get custody of Harry."

The woman nodded. Vernon looked confused that his wife even cared to ask about where Harry was going. He glared at the two aurors. "Are we done here?"

Rufus was about to answer before he fished his mirror out of his pocket. He walked out of the house, saying "What is it, Dawlish?"

"Well?" An impatient Vernon snarled at her. "We've already been woken up rudely, had a freak child dumped on our doorstep, then you freaks burst in here, telling us a kidnapper was near our home! Are we done here?" he repeated.

"You really don't care, do you?" she asked. Vernon shrugged and shook his head in a way that said 'Of course not,' and Petunia, who Amelia could see was going through some inner conflict, just shook her head along with her husband.

Amelia shook her own head and walked out of the door with Harry in her arms. She couldn't believe Dumbledore wanted to leave Harry with those people. Rufus was still on his mirror-call. "Keep him detained, take witness statements and _make sure _his wand his secured. I want to speak to him myself." He listened to the auror on the other end; his mirror was charmed to only be audible to him. "I don't care if he's hysterical! Force feed him a calming draught." He ended the call. "Bones, we've got to get to Auror headquarters. Is there someone you can leave the boy with?"

Sirius was rumored to be a death eater, the Longbottoms were still in hiding, Peter had been missing for a couple of days and Remus for a couple of months. "I'll take him to the Tonks'. What happened?"

"Sirius Black just killed Peter Pettigrew and twelve muggles."

Amelia would have collapsed, had it not been for the boy in her arms. Peter was barely a friend, and was really only around because James was, but it still came as a shock. What shook her was Sirius. Despite the family he had come from, there was nothing to suggest that the man ever had an evil gene in his body. She didn't become friends with the Potters, Remus, or the Longbottoms until Sirius, her best friend's cousin, had introduced them. He was the joker of group, always trying to put a smile on everyone's face. He fought dark wizards alongside her, for Merlin's sake, how could he be a servant of Voldemort? The rumors of the past couple of days were just rumors, but hearing the news from Rufus so bluntly nearly knocked her sideways.

"I'll meet you at Headquarters," said Rufus, snapping her out of her trance. Amelia nodded, and he disappeared with a pop.

Apparating with children under 2 wasn't safe, since their bodies were too delicate to handle the physical pressure. Amelia walked home quickly, but was careful not to wake Harry. She went straight to the fireplace and threw her powder into it, clearly and quietly saying the Tonks' location.

She was one of the few people allowed into the Tonks residence without needing permission first. Careful to stay upright on the way out of the fireplace, she went straight to the room that the Tonks family kept for Susan. The little girl was sleeping on her toddler bed. Amelia conjured a crib next to Susan's bed, complete with plenty of bedding. She set Harry down softly and went to her niece, who she kissed on the forehead.

Next Amelia made her way to Ted and Andi's bedroom. She softly knocked on the door, hoping it would be enough to wake them up but not violently. She didn't even know if Andi was back from work yet. "Who is it?" she heard her ask. Apparently she'd been given some time to sleep too.

"Andi, it's Amelia. Something's happened, can you come meet me in the kitchen?"

Her friend was quiet for a moment. Amelia knew she was worried, and rightly so. Finally she responded. "Yeah, I'll be right there."

Amelia walked to the kitchen and sat down at the table. Andi made it out after just a few minutes.

"I'm sorry for waking you. I've got to get back to the Ministry but there's a couple of things I have to let you know." Her friend nodded and joined her at the table. She began. "Harry survived the attack last night."

As expected, Andi put her hand to her mouth in shock. "I heard rumors, but I couldn't believe it was true. How is it possible?"

"Apparently, Lily sacrificed herself and saved him." The other woman began to tear up at the mention of Lily. Amelia had to keep going, or she might start to cry too. "Dumbledore had taken him from the house and put him at the Dursleys. I caught him and called Rufus. We tried to arrest him for kidnapping, but he got away. We retrieved Harry, and well, I brought him over. He's in a crib in Susan's room. Would it be okay to watch him too? It'll only be temporary, until we can figure everything out. You and Ted are the only ones I can think of." She was dreading explaining why Sirius or Peter weren't able to take Harry.

She'd just given her friend several unbelievable bits of news, and it wasn't surprising to see her looking very confused. "Um, yeah, of course."

"Thank you," Amelia replied. "I've got to get back, but we'll talk tomorrow when I pick Susan up. I'll probably be picking Harry up too, if we can figure out where he'll go."

Andi nodded. Amelia put a hand on her friend's and smiled. She started for the fireplace, but Andi spoke up again. "Amelia."

She stopped, but didn't look back.

"The rumors about Sirius? They're not true are they? Surely he's not a death eater. He couldn't have betrayed James and Lily."

Amelia had hoped to avoid this until they had talked to Sirius. She wanted to make sure he was what he seemed before she spread the news. She walked back to Andi. "I can't say much right now, but we have him in custody at the moment. I'm on my way to the Ministry to see him."

Andi nodded. Sirius was her only family member not hung up on pure-blooded nonsense. They had been extremely close, and it amazed Amelia to see how good he was with Nymphadora. She hugged her friend, and held her for a few minutes before she finally let go to head to the fireplace and floo to the Ministry.

Amelia arrived in the Atrium and saw numerous workers from different departments walking about. It was nowhere near as crowded as in the morning or daytime, but it was still strange to see so many people walking around so late at night. She made her way to the lift and it took her to the DMLE, which was just as crowded as the daytime, possibly even more so. She pushed her way through the mob of workers. Most were busy, filling out reports from the incident, but there were others that were crowding around the interrogation room, trying to get a look at Sirius.

Finally, she made her way to the area near the door. Rufus was waiting there for her. "I thought you'd like to join me in the interrogation. Something's not right. Moody wanted to take Black straight to Azkaban, no trial or anything."

"It's looking more and more likely that he's in Dumbledore's Order like we thought," Amelia said. "If he has instructions from the old man, and I'd bet half my vault that those crackpot orders came from him, then he's seen him tonight. Where is he now?"

"I sent him home. It pays to outrank people, at times. We can summon him for questioning later, after we deal with this Black fiasco. Ready?"

"As I'll ever be." They pushed the door to the interrogation room open. Sirius sat at the table, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. He was caked in blood, sweat and dirt. The calming drought that he'd been forced to take was helping, mostly. He was very slightly rocking back and forth, no more than a couple of inches each way. His eyes were wide and looking through the table in front of him.

Rufus started. "That was quite a mess you left, Black. Twelve muggles dead, thirty more injured. All that was found of your friend Pettigrew was a finger. I'm told that when officials arrived on the scene, you were in a fit of laughter, screaming with it. Took the strongest calming drought we had to shut you up. That doesn't exactly help your case." Sirius didn't respond. The draught seemingly did its job but it made him into a shell. Amelia didn't think he'd be able to answer any questions in this state.

"Should we wait until he's more fit to talk?" she asked Rufus.

"This is vital, Bones. We'll get him to talk." He held up a small bottle of a clear potion, and Susan instantly knew what it was.

"How did you get authority for that?"

"It seems Barty wants this wrapped up quick. This stuff won't just prevent him from lying, it'll also help with his shyness. Open up, Black."

The veritaserum was poured down Sirius' throat. They waited about thirty seconds.

"State your name, please," said Rufus.

Sirius' voice was scratchy. "Sirius Orion Black."

"Let's start at the beginning. Are you responsible for the deaths of Lily and James Potter?"

"Yes."

Rufus closed his eyes. Amelia knew the man liked the young auror in front of him. He sighed and said "That's conspiracy to commit murder, so far. Now –"

"Hold on," Amelia said. "Did you give the Potter's location to Lord Voldemort?"

"No."

"Who have you given their location to?"

"Nobody."

"How is that possible?" asked Rufus.

"Even if I wanted to tell anyone, I wouldn't have been able to. Dumbledore suggested that Lily and James use the Fidelius Charm to protect their location. Only the selected secret-keeper can disclose the information."

"Who was the Potter's secret-keeper?"

"Peter Pettigrew." Under veritaserum, people usually stayed very calm and spoke evenly. It must have taken pure hate and rage to make Sirius snarl as he said the name of the Potters' true betrayer.

"Why did you claim responsibility for Lily and James' deaths?" she asked.

"I was originally meant to be secret-keeper. At the last minute I told them to switch to Peter. I was the obvious choice. I was to be a decoy, the one that the Death Eaters would go for first, but I wouldn't be able to tell them anything. I didn't think that they would ever take Peter seriously.

"There had been leaks in the Order for months. Someone had been giving secrets to the other side, locations of various Order members, not just James and Lily." Amelia's heart sunk. "The Prewitts, the McKinnons, the..." He looked at Amelia, not wanting to say who was next. The potion forced him to, however. "The Bones' too.

"Lily and James had to move locations three times, because the death eaters kept finding them. They only used the Fidelius at Godric's Hollow. Dumbledore deduced that the leak in the Order had to be one of James' closest friends, because the three of us were the only ones who knew where they were by the second move, and they were still found. I knew it wasn't me, and between Remus and Peter I assumed the traitor had to be the stronger one, and the one that had been mysteriously disappearing for weeks at a time, Remus. I suggested that James and Lily put their safety in the hands of a filthy rat. I'm responsible for their deaths."

Rufus then brought up the events from that night. "Is that why you killed Pettigrew?"

"No. I didn't kill Peter. I wanted to with every fiber of my being. I spent the whole day hunting him, but I didn't find him until tonight. He was in the Hog's Head, where I almost killed him, but Aberforth Dumbledore stopped me. He thought I was the traitor. I knocked Aberforth out and then chased Pettigrew into a muggle town, and he started to yell at me for betraying our friends. He cast a powerful explosion spell behind his back. He killed all of those people. When I came to, I saw him cut his own finger off. Then he transformed into his rat form and ran off."

"Pettigrew wasn't registered as an animagus," said Rufus. He began looking through a stack of parchment to find something he may have missed.

"Myself, James, and Peter became animagi illegally at Hogwarts." At first Amelia thought that they had done it for some elaborate prank, but she would have thought that Remus would have done it with them.

"Why not Remus?"

Sirius looked like he didn't want to answer that, but he had no choice. "Remus didn't need to."

"And why is that?" asked Rufus.

The broken man in front of them reacted even more strongly to that one, but before he began to form the words Amelia cut in. "Rufus, I think we're getting off topic. We know that Sirius is innocent and that we've got a man guilty of murder and accessory to murder running around as a rat." Rufus nodded, though it looked like he really wanted to explore it. She knew he was a stickler for rules.

They administered the antidote to Sirius and he took a while to snap out of his hypnosis. Rufus took Amelia into the attached viewing room so that they could speak in private. "We need Wanted posters in the Prophet for Dumbledore and Pettigrew yesterday. Black broke a rule with the animagus business but other than that I don't think he'll have any further worries."

"You think we could get him off for attempted murder?" asked Amelia. "He admitted to having the intent to kill the man."

"If it were anyone but Barty running the DMLE, I think it would be difficult. Let's see if Black is up and at 'em."

They reentered the room, and Sirius looked up at them. He seemed slightly more alert than when they had first seen him. Rufus walked behind him and undid the charm binding his wrists.

At his surprised expression, Amelia said, "You'll be fined for not registering as an animagus but we'll worry about that later." She flicked her wand at him and it looked as if he'd just taken a shower and washed his clothes.

Voice still scratchy, he asked, "That's all? I went after Pettigrew, I was going to kill him."

Rufus responded. "You were an auror going after a Death Eater under the employment of Barty Crouch, who has given aurors the authority to use the unforgivables against You-Know-Who and his followers. For actually going on an off-duty investigation without authorization, your punishment is up to the head of your team. Auror Bones?"

"You are hereby ordered to take the rest of the week off, Auror Black," said Amelia. "Go home."

Sirius let half a smile show on his face. He may have been able to prove his innocence, but he was still a broken man. "Thank you, Auror Bones." It was a little weird to hear Sirius sound so professional; he usually called her Amelia despite her being a superior, though in front of another head auror like Rufus, she understood. "What about Harry? Hagrid told me he was going to live with Lily's sister, is he still there?"

Amelia answered. "We've removed Harry from their home and he's currently staying at the Tonks'. You are his godfather and Alice his godmother, so the two of you will have to figure out where he'll go. You can pick him up at Andi's any time. You might want to see her sooner than later, she's terrified that you're no longer one of the black sheep of the Blacks."

Another half smile. "I'll go see her tomorrow morning."

Sirius got up to leave, but Rufus had to exit first to let the crowd know that the man about to come out was neither a death eater nor a murderer. They all dispersed, giving Sirius a clear path through the office to leave the Ministry.

Amelia was sitting at the interrogation table when Rufus got back, her head in her hands. He sat across from her. "You want to kill him, don't you?" He was referring to Pettigrew, the man that Amelia now knew conspired to have her entire family killed.

"For the past month, I've had someone to focus my anger on, besides Voldemort." Rufus twitched slightly at the name. She never understood that. "The Death Eaters who actually did the murder were probably nameless, faceless drones. I'll likely never know whose wands the curses came out of. I've just had Dumbledore, the man indirectly responsible. And now, I've got the name of the person who pointed the Death Eaters in my family's direction, who orphaned my niece. He was barely a friend but the fact that we ever interacted on any kind of social level makes me sick."

"We'll get him, Bones," said Rufus. He was never much of a comforting individual, but his promise of justice helped Amelia immensely.

She almost wanted to warn Sirius about Dumbledore being a wanted man, but she thought he had been through enough tonight and would probably just talk to him tomorrow, perhaps catch him at Andi's in the morning. Anyone in league with the headmaster would have to be warned to stay away from him or join him on his way to prison.

**A/N** Please review and let me know if this project works. Thanks!


	3. The Next Great Adventure

Sirius flooed into his home from the Ministry atrium at about two o'clock in the morning, minutes after his veritaserum interrogation. He still wanted to go out and find Pettigrew, and finish the job he had given himself, but if the rat had faked his own death, it was unlikely that he would ever cease to be in his rat form. Besides, he was sure that Amelia would also stop at nothing to catch him, because his friend and team leader had lost just as much as Sirius had at the hands of their former friend. If the bastard was still at large by next week, he was glad to be on Amelia's team, which was responsible for hunting him down, but for now, news of his being able to claim Harry as his own had changed his priorities.

His flat was dark, but he didn't bother turning the lights on as he walked through the living room to his bedroom. He had been awake for thirty-six straight hours and needed sleep. Crashing on the bed, he feigned falling asleep, to throw off his intruder.

His sense of smell wasn't as strong as when he was Padfoot, so he couldn't identify specific people based on it, but being a dog animagus still heightened the sense to the point that he could tell when he wasn't alone. That was the sensation that he picked up on midway through crossing the living room.

Sirius lay with his wand ready, both listening and smelling for some sign of movement. When a floorboard creaked in the left corner opposite his bed, he shot up to launch a curse in that direction, but his enemy was quicker, and all he had time to do was roll off of the bed to barely dodge a reductor.

Throwing two quick stunners towards the corner, Sirius dashed to the bedroom door and out to the living room. A wave of his wand turned the lights on, so that he'd be able to identify his attacker. He stayed off to the side, to get a more surprising angle on the intruder. For what seemed like forever, he held his arm up at the doorway, ready to blast whoever it was to pieces.

The sight of who had broken in caused him to put his wand down in relief. The man was covered in cuts and scrapes, and had even more premature gray in his brown hair than when Sirius had last seen him. Sirius let his guard down, which he knew to be a mistake when Remus Lupin turned and he saw the same crazed look in his friend's eyes that he knew he himself had sported just hours ago.

"Hello, Sirius," Remus simply said, before throwing a flurry of curses his way. Sirius jumped out of the way of the first one, then immediately stood and went on the defensive, furiously parrying everything thrown at him. Blocked spells and hexes blew holes in the walls and slashed chairs as he was backed towards the kitchen. Finally, Remus threw two spells close enough together for Sirius to only block the first one. A banishing charm hit him square in the chest, sending him flying and crashing into the kitchen table. His wand rolled underneath the refrigerator, too far out of reach.

He could hear his friend's footsteps slowly approaching him. Apparently Remus wasn't as talkative as Sirius had been with Pettigrew when he caught him in the Hog's Head. He slowly got up from the heap of wood. "That was my favorite table," he said dryly.

It was the wrong thing to say. "Incarcerous!" He became bound in thin black ropes, but still stood as he looked at the man who believed he was the traitor. He couldn't say that he blamed him, since he had suspected that Remus was the traitor before he found out that it was Peter. "How dare you? How _dare _you sit there and joke? Were you joking with Voldemort when you gave Lily and James' location to him? Were you laughing it up with the Death Eaters when they got killed?"

"Moony, listen –"

"No! Enough joking from you, Sirius. I'm should have done this right from the start, instead of toying with you. Goodbye."

"Wait!" Sirius managed before Remus started the curse. "Use my pensieve, take the memories out of my head. You know it takes at least a few weeks to perfectly fake a memory. These are from last week, last night and tonight." At first he didn't think that Remus would listen, but he was relieved to see the man sigh and turn back towards the living room. He picked the pensieve up from the floor, as it had been knocked over by a stray hex. Sirius shuffled off of the pile of table he was standing on, and Remus repaired it with his wand to put the basin on it. He then held the wand up to Sirius's temple, and Sirius thought of the moment that Peter was made Secret-Keeper last week, his discovery of James' house the previous night, and his pursuit of Peter.

Remus pulled the long strand out and directed it to the pensieve. He looked at Sirius suspiciously before leaning down and disappearing into the basin.

* * *

Amelia, Rufus, and everyone on their teams except for Sirius entered the Hogwarts gates at almost two thirty in the morning. They assumed that even if Dumbledore hadn't returned to the castle after their skirmish, they could at least question Hagrid, whose hut indeed had its lights turned on. Rufus had contacted Minerva McGonagall to inform her of their presence, but made sure that she took a wizard's oath not to warn the headmaster. He took his team to meet the deputy headmistress while Amelia took hers to Hagrid's hut.

They approached the hut, and Amelia noticed the worried looks on the other faces. She and her friends had visited Hagrid numerous times during school, so she knew of his true nature, but her men didn't. "Stay alert, guys, but don't look so jumpy. Hagrid's harmless, as long as you don't get hostile with him. If that happens, remember to aim for the face, but this is just a friendly meeting. We're to convince him to either help with the investigation or stay away, and if he doesn't comply, he'll be arrested for helping Dumbledore with the kidnapping. He may have been the one who took Harry, but Dumbledore was pulling the strings and Hagrid was just one of the puppets. If we can avoid taking him down, we will. Anderson, Davies, come in with me. Everyone else, form a precautionary perimeter around the hut."

She knocked on the large door and waited. It didn't take long for Hagrid to open the door, and at the sight of the crossbow in his hands, Amelia merely tightened the grip on her wand while the other two raised theirs. "Easy, men, stand down." She knew he carried that thing around just in case, but had never seen him use it. It was more just for show, as far as she knew. "Evening, Hagrid. We're going to have to come in to ask some questions, is that okay?"

Hagrid looked uneasy, but knew that it was the law that had come knocking, and he stepped aside to allow them in. "Tea?" he asked.

"Yes, please," she responded. The three aurors sat down at the table while Hagrid worked with a very large tea kettle and cups. It brought Amelia back to the many visits to this hut she had made with her friends, and she had to remind herself that she was here on Ministry business. When Hagrid poured the tea for them and sat down, she begun. "Hagrid, we know you took Harry from that house last night and that you've had him for the day. As you know, I intercepted you, Professor Dumbledore, and Professor McGonagall at Privet Drive this evening and I told you to stay where you could be contacted. Thanks for doing that. Now, I suppose you'd like to know what happened to Professor Dumbledore, unless you already know?"

When Hagrid didn't respond, she went on. "Dumbledore tried to talk his way out of it, but in the end, he is guilty of kidnapping. Myself and Rufus Scrimgeour attempted to arrest him, but he escaped. I know that it was you who took Harry, but it was Dumbledore controlling everything. That said, the only way I can help you avoid jail time is if you help us to locate him, so that we can bring him in for questioning. Now, can you tell me if Dumbledore came to Hogwarts any time after you left Privet Drive?"

He stayed silent. Amelia knew that he was about as loyal as you could get to Dumbledore, and getting him to betray the headmaster was near impossible. "Hagrid, you were our favorite staff member here. You gave us some of the best memories we had during our seven years. I want other children to share that, and continue having you as a friend and role model, but that can't happen if you aren't here anymore. I don't control who works here, but the Ministry isn't going to let a criminal run Hogwarts, and they aren't going to let people who withhold information on him continue to work here.

"James and Lily loved you too, Hagrid. They in no way, shape or form wanted the Dursleys to get a hold of their son. We just want to honor their wishes and sanction those who work against them. Harry will be going with Sirius, who we've proven is innocent, or with the Longbottoms. They were at the top of the list of people that James and Lily wanted to take care of Harry. If Dumbledore had gotten away with this, he'd be growing up with a woman who disowned her own sister because she was a witch. How do you think she would treat her sister's wizard son?"

That seemed to do that trick. Though Hagrid still didn't talk for a minute, he shifted uncomfortably as if he didn't like what he was about to do. That was good. He finally spoke. "Professor Dumbledore was here earlier, but he lef'."

"Do you know who he's spoken too?"

"I wasn' in his office, but I saw Professor Snape comin' from that direction earlier in the nigh', an' I also saw Remus Lupin leavin' the castle abou' an hour ago. He's suppose'd ter come here in the afternoon, 'round two."

"Thank you, Hagrid." Amelia got up and touched his shoulder comfortingly. "I know it's hard for you, but you're doing the right thing."

"I know, 'Melia," said Hagrid. "Jus' know that Dumbledore is a great man, as are his intentions."

"I'm not denying any of that. I'm sure that his intentions will come up at his trial, but he's only hurting his chances at being found innocent the longer that he avoids arrest." Hagrid just nodded, and Amelia got up to leave. Before walking out the door, she said, "I'll put in a good word for you, tell them that you cooperated with us. If you contact him, or help him in any way, I'll have to rescind that. Please don't make me do that, Hagrid." And she left with Anderson and Davies, rounding up the other aurors and heading to the castle to meet the other team.

Rufus and the others were already walking back from Hogwarts, and Amelia met them. "Done already?"

"McGonagall led us to his office, but the gargoyles wouldn't let anyone in, not even with a password. Homenum revelio told us that he wasn't inside. Apparently he spoke to the new potions professor, and Remus Lupin while he was here, but it doesn't look like he stuck around too long," Rufus said, confirming what Hagrid had told her.

"Alright. You should go back into the castle and question Snape. Don't hesitate to arrest him if he doesn't cooperate. That slimy git's got Death Eater written all over him, I'm betting he was either spying on Dumbledore for Voldemort, making him guilty of treason as a Death Eater, or the other way around, which makes him one of Dumbledore's accomplices, and he could know where the old man took off to. Check his arm to be sure. I'm going to find Remus." She turned to her team. "Everyone, keep your mirrors on you. Other than that, take a few hours to go home and get some rest. I want everyone at Auror Headquarters at 8 o'clock sharp. Dumbledore is planning to be at Hagrid's hut at two o'clock tomorrow, which means we need to be here at eleven just in case."

With that, Rufus and his team turned back towards Hogwarts to approach Snape while Amelia led her team to the castle gate to apparate away. She didn't know where Remus lived, and actually hadn't seen the man in weeks, assuming Dumbledore had him on some crazy mission for the Order. If he had already seen the headmaster, he had heard about Sirius' betrayal, and he wouldn't be home anyway, he'd be out hunting Sirius like Sirius hunted Pettigrew earlier.

Hoping she wasn't too late, she apparated to Sirius' flat, ready to stop Remus from wrongfully killing his friend.

* * *

Sirius and Remus sat at the table, finally in silence. Remus had spent the last half hour draining every ounce of emotion that he had, love and mourning for James and Lily, guilt and sorrow for Sirius, and just plain rage for Peter. There were tears of sorrow and loss, yells for vengeance, apologies for believing the rumors about Sirius, and the faintest chuckles at some random happy memories of James.

Sirius just listened to his friend and comforted him when it was needed. Emotion was something he was void of at the moment, having experienced the scene of his best friend's family's death and hunted the man responsible all in a 24-hour span.

The two of them just sat and stared off into space together after a while. Then, apparently to lighten the mood, Remus said, "I finally beat you in a duel."

Scoffing, Sirius retorted, " You caught me off guard, good sir."

"Whatever you say, Padfoot. Where's Harry?"

The thought of his godson made Sirius happy. Finally, some form of emotion. "Amelia took him to the Tonks' for the time being. I'm going to head over in the morning to pick him up, then Alice and I will have to sit down and decide what's to happen to him. I'd rather have him and raise him, but I daresay she and Frank definitely know what they're doing when it comes to kids, having Neville already."

"Well, I'm sure that they'll understand that. They might have their hands full with Neville anyway," said Remus. "You'd make a great dad, Sirius. Of course, raised by you alone, Harry might turn into a prat, so I'll have to drop by to counteract some of what you teach him."

A smirk reached Sirius' face. "If raised by his Uncle Padfoot and Uncle Moony, I would think we've got an ultimate marauder on our hands. Hogwarts had better watch out."

They laughed for a while, but Remus' face gradually became grave. "What about Peter?"

"From what I hear, our team is going to lead the search party. I've been given the week off and I supposed I'll join them in the hunt after that if necessary, but for now, there's a one-year-old that needs my attention more than a traitorous rat." Remus just nodded. Sirius knew what his friend was feeling; he wanted to run out the door and start the search for Peter and make him pay, make him suffer. Sirius needed to change the subject. "So where have you been the past few months? It wasn't hard to assume that you were the traitor, with all the absences and secrecy, Moony."

"Dumbledore had me in the woods, spying on a clan of werewolves."

"What?" Peter suddenly wasn't alone in Sirius' direction of anger. "He used your condition to put you through that? Is that how you got all those cuts on you?"

Remus nodded. "Earlier today, I was found by the clan and attacked. You should have seen me then. All these scratches used to be gashes. Dumbledore showed up and saved me, took me to St. Mungo's. When I came to, I met him at Hogwarts, and he told me James and Lily were dead and you were to blame. I came right over here to wait for you. Mad-Eye fire-called him when I was on my way out, probably telling him about you killing Peter. If I heard that, I think I would've killed you right away."

"Comforting," said Sirius. "Well, here's hoping that since Voldemort's dead, you won't have to do that anymore. What did he tell you about Harry?"

"He said he ran into a snag putting him where he needed to go. I assumed he was trying to get in contact with Frank and Alice."

Sirius shook his head in quiet confusion. What was going on with Dumbledore? First he sent Hagrid to take Harry to the one family he wasn't supposed to go to, then Sirius found out that the old man had been behind Remus' absences over the past few months. He knew that the snag Remus referred to was Amelia's doing, since she had taken Harry from Privet Drive and placed him with Andi and Ted. Was there something more to all of this?

Eerily on cue, footsteps filled the silent living room. Someone had silently apparated in. He and Remus looked at each other warily and took their wands out. The only people able to enter Sirius' flat without prior permission were the Potters, Longbottoms, Tonks', Amelia, Remus and Peter. Since one of those people was a murderous traitor, he had to be on full alert. They took aim at the living room, ready to attack the visitor if needed, but lowered their wands when they saw that it was Amelia.

The auror took a look around the destroyed living room, then turned her attention to the men. "Good, looks like it only took a ransacked room for you two to make up."

"My kitchen table was a casualty too, but Remus cared enough to repair it," Sirius said sarcastically. The three of them decided to quickly straighten up the room, and with their wands it was barely a minute-long job. They all sat down, Remus on an armchair and Sirius and Amelia on opposite ends of the couch.

"Has Sirius filled you in on what he knows, Remus?" Amelia asked. When Remus nodded, she said, "Good, then I can fill you both in. The whole Order of the Phoenix business that you've all been involved in ends tonight. You're my friends, so I don't want to see you going the same way as Dumbledore, which after tonight could be prison."

There was the something more. Sirius spoke up. "Amelia, what the bloody hell is going on with him?"

"I stopped him from breaking James and Lily's wishes regarding Harry, then Rufus and I tried to arrest him for kidnapping. He resisted and got away, but we retrieved Harry and I took him to Andi's place for the night. We've got to find the Longbottoms, by the way. Now that Voldemort's dead they can come out of hiding and you can figure out where Harry will go."

"If you meet us at Andi's tomorrow to pick Harry up at seven, you can come with us to their safehouse. They're under the Fidelius too, but we've got the location written by their secret-keeper."

"That will work. Other than giving them the warning I gave you two, I want to make sure Harry's got a place to go fast so we can move on to catching Dumbledore. He's supposed to be at Hagrid's hut tomorrow afternoon, and we plan to ambush him."

"You got Hagrid to cooperate?" asked Sirius, who gaped at Amelia's nod. "You're quite the charmer, Amelia." He gave his superior a wink.

"Let us know how that goes," said Remus. "The only way Dumbledore would get captured is if he wanted to be."

"Well, two teams of aurors say otherwise," Amelia said. "Anyway, I've got to head out and finally get some rest. I'll meet you two at seven sharp at Andi's."

Sirius and Remus nodded and watched her turn on the spot and disappear. Sirius turned to his friend. "Take the bed, Moony, you've been in the woods for a couple months and you need it. The couch works for me."

Apparently the werewolf was too tired to deny it, and he said his thanks before heading to the bedroom. Sirius wrote a quick letter to Andi, explaining his innocence and letting her know he'd be at her place early tomorrow with Remus and Amelia to pick up Harry. He summoned his owl, who did not look happy after losing sleep due to the earlier fight, and sent him on his way, then conjured a blanket over himself and spread out. He'd get less than four hours of sleep, but at least it was something. Things had taken a complete one-eighty in the last few hours, and he was almost giddy with the thought of seeing his godson. With that thought, Sirius drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Amelia woke up in her bed at six, ready for what she could only hope was a day of success. With any luck, Dumbledore would be in custody by the day's end. She showered and got dressed quickly, then flooed to the Tonks' house early.

The smell of sausage and eggs came from the kitchen. She walked over and saw Ted Tonks working at the stove while Andromeda sat at the kitchen table reading the Daily Prophet. Andi saw her first and greeted her with a smile.

"You heard about Sirius?" Amelia asked her friend. Ted heard her, and turned to wave before returning to work.

"He owled me last night. Haven't been able to sleep since, I've been so relieved." Andi put the paper down on the table and walked to Amelia to hug her. Amelia looked and saw the wanted posters for Pettigrew and Dumbledore on the Prophet. All of wizarding Britain now knew that the headmaster was a wanted man.

She checked on Susan, still fast asleep in her toddler bed, with Harry sleeping in his crib next to her. Amelia couldn't believe it had it had only been a matter of hours since she had last been here, dropping Harry off and kissing Susan's head. She couldn't wait until this all settled down and she could give her niece a normal life.

"Is he in there?" she heard Sirius' voice say from the hallway. She nodded and he joined her in the doorway. For a while they both just stood there, watching the two children sleep. "I know this war has sucked for those of us fighting it, but they're the ones that are affected more than anyone. And how would we explain it to them? We talk about blood purity and muggles and all the things that this war is being fought over, that we're losing friends over, and it just sounds," he paused for a moment. "It sounds stupid."

A few tears fell out of Amelia's eyes, and Sirius turned and wiped them away. She stepped forward and trapped the fellow auror in a hug, and he tightly returned it.

"We're going to give them the parents they deserve, Sirius," she said. That made him squeeze her tighter in the hug. They pulled apart after a moment, catching each other a seconds-too-long gaze as they started to walk back to the kitchen to join the Tonks' and Remus.

Ted had ended up making too much food, which was a good thing since Sirius hadn't eaten in almost two days and gorged himself on everything that was put in front of him. They all shared a laugh at his expense, but he could care less as he inhaled his few servings of waffles, eggs, bacon, and sausage. When he was finally finished, he left to pick Harry up from his crib.

Remus already had a portkey prepared, set to activate at the touch of four people. They didn't have to bring Harry, but Sirius thought that Neville had to be lonely. The two men said goodbye to the Tonks', and Amelia hugged Andi and told her she'd be back that night to pick up Susan. When all four of them touched the portkey, including the sleeping Harry, they were off.

They landed in a quaint muggle neighborhood. Amelia followed Remus and Sirius towards two houses, and they all stopped at the sidewalk. Sirius carefully gave Harry to Remus and dug into his pocket for a piece of parchment, taking it out and showing it to Amelia.

"Memorize that," he said. The handwriting on the parchment was very elegant cursive, and it said simply, 'The safehouse of the Longbottom family is Number 9, Honeywick Circle in London.' When she looked back up, she was surprised to see the two houses that they had approached pulling apart from each other, making room for another house that was growing to full size. She'd heard of the Fidelius Charm, of course, but had never seen it in action.

"Who's the Secret-Keeper?" she asked Sirius.

"Frank's mum. Dumbledore tried to offer himself up, but she wasn't budging." Amelia nodded. She'd only met the woman once, but what Sirius said didn't surprise her. She was as stubborn as she was loving of her son.

As the house finished growing, almost twice the size of the other houses on the neighborhood, Sirius held his wand up to the parchment, set it on fire, and dropped it on the ground. "They should be able to take down the Fidelius now, so we don't need that." They started walking to the front door. "It's about time, I'm gonna take Frank to Gringott's myself. I can't believe he still hasn't given me that ten galleons from our bet on –"

But Amelia never knew what they had bet on. They were able to hear a nasty voice from inside. "Is that not enough for you, dearies? Well, a bit more couldn't hurt.

"Crucio!" The voice was joined by another as they shouted in unison.

Instantly, Sirius and Amelia's wands were out and the aurors' instincts kicked in. She summoned a rock from the ground, concentrating on Andi's kitchen and the number two, then said, "Portus!" Then she tossed it to Remus, who caught it with one hand. "Touch Harry's hand with it, it'll take you back to Andi's. And stay there until we get back!" The man did so and disappeared with the baby.

Amelia hurried to the front door to join Sirius, who blasted the entire frame open as she approached. Through the whole, they had a view of what was happening. Standing over a huddled figure was Andi's sister, Bellatrix Lestrange, unmasked and smiling menacingly. A man, also unmasked and wearing a horrid grin, was over another figure, and two masked men stood closer to the door. Amelia knew the unmasked man, but shock of the scene prevented her from registering who he was.

It took a fraction of a second for the image to unfreeze and havoc to ensue. The aurors sent stunners at the two masked death eaters, who dropped at once. Bellatrix and her partner reacted quickly, each throwing a killing curse. Amelia felt a sideways shove as Sirius pushed her out of the way of one curse while conjuring a boulder that took the other curse and disintegrated. From the ground she finally got over the shock and recognized the unmasked man as Barty Crouch, Jr., a Ravenclaw two years younger than her who happened to be her boss' son.

Getting up and realizing that stunners weren't going to cut it against these two, Amelia sliced the air and threw a cutting curse aimed for the Crouch's wand arm. He blocked it and sent it flying around the room as Bellatrix began dueling Sirius ferociously. Not giving the man time to send another curse back, Amelia cast a much darker cutter and the thin black light made contact with his eye, making him scream out in pain.

Blood flowed freely from Crouch's face, but he still fought relentlessly and forced Amelia to get on the defensive, trying hard to parry curses without hitting Sirius. She had to dive out of the way of a cruciatus curse that just barely missed her. Growling in frustration, she rolled over on the ground and shouted, "Accio Longbottoms!" Frank and Alice flew towards her and she waved her wand to make them land safely and slowly out of the way of the battle, then threw an explosive charm at the armchair next to Crouch. He had expected her to aim for him, so his shield was a waste of time, and the exploding chair knocked him sideways, where he landed awkwardly on one leg with a crack. As he tried to get back up, Amelia launched a bludgeoning spell at him. He was barely able to block it with another shield, but the force of the collision knocked him down once more. Amelia swooped on him, casting a stunner and a binding spell to end the duel.

Coming to a frightening realization, she cast homenum revelio, which told her that there were seven people in the house besides her; Neville wasn't here, at least not alive. "Accio Neville!" she screamed. Nothing. She breathed a sigh of relief. A corpse would still be summoned by the name of the person. It was one of the many things she wasn't proud of knowing.

She looked around to see how Sirius was doing. The cousins had moved their duel to the staircase, and were moving upstairs, with Bellatrix's back to the upper level. The killing curses that she frequently threw made it less of a duel and more of an agility and conjuring exercise for Sirius as he kept dodging them and conjuring items to take the green curses for him.

Amelia's eyes narrowed, and she decided to remind Bellatrix that she wasn't the only Slytherin there. She hit the top of her own head, and the peculiar feeling fell upon her as she disappeared from view. With a turn, she apparated almost silently to Frank and Alice's bedroom, positioning her behind the lunatic. After silencing her feet, she snuck up behind Bellatrix, aimed her wand close to the witch, and whispered, "Imperio."

It was a battle of wills that probably should have lasted longer, since the older witch was no doubt as strong as she was insane. If she hadn't taken Bellatrix by surprise, the death eater wouldn't have succumbed so quickly, if at all, but she slipped into Amelia's control, a pleasant smile on her face. She kept the thought, 'Stay,' in her mind, willing the woman to obey.

Sirius would have blasted his cousin into oblivion, but he stopped when Amelia said, "Reillusion me, Sirius." She wanted to focus all of her magical energy on holding Bellatrix, because she knew the witch was trying with everything she had to fight the imperius. Sirius aimed his wand just to Bellatrix's left side and Amelia looked down to see herself reappear.

'Drop the wand and walk down the stairs,' she commanded in her head, and Bellatrix obeyed. Sirius moved out of the way of the two women as they passed them, and summoned his cousin's wand. She then instructed her to walk to the doorway and stay there, then bound and stunned her, making sure to bind the other death eaters, who lay forgotten at the blasted-open doorway. A quick flick of her wand vanished their masks. "These two are the Lestrange brothers, Rudolphus and Rabastan," she said. "It'll be one big family get-together in Azkaban."

"I never liked this one," Sirius said to Amelia as he approached Barty. "Always thought he was a stuck-up little git. Nice job on his face, though. It's still bleeding." He levitated the youngest death eater to the doorway to join his friends, and made sure all four death eaters were lined up nicely in a row. Amelia only responded with a grunt as she fruitlessly tried to snap the Longbottoms from their catatonic states. She knew that prolonged exposure to the cruciatus curse could drive a person insane, but she had never seen anybody taken this far. Merlin knew how long they had suffered before Amelia and Sirius had shown up.

'What a mess,' she thought. A simple meet-and-greet with friends to decide where Harry would go turned into a possible loss of two more of her friends, at the hands of a group of death eaters that included her own boss' son. What a mess, indeed.

It was only a matter of minutes before dozens of ministry officials occupied Honeywick Circle. Muggle-repelling charms affecting neighbors within a two block radius took away any and all desires to leave their houses or look out of their windows. Sirius and Amelia gave their statements to a representative of the auror department quickly, knowing that a large amount of parchment work would be necessary later, anyway. Afterward, they made their way to the healers, who were trying to come up with a way to make Frank and Alice Longbottom respond to anything or anybody, to no avail. A grave talk with the most senior healer present revealed that the couple had been exposed to the curse for far longer than any recorded case. They were soon portkeyed away to St. Mungo's for further analysis.

The trainee healer who had been assigned to quickly patch up Crouch, Jr. came up to Amelia. "That was your cutter to that death eater's face?" She nodded in the affirmative. "It's a good thing your boss is so lenient with using dark spells against them. That scar won't be going away any time in te next few decades or so. I don't think even magical concealment would hide it." It sounded like he didn't recognize that the boss he was speaking of was the death eater's father.

As if its owner was sent by order of Murphy's Law, a deep voice cut in from behind Amelia. It was the last one Amelia wanted to hear. "Gave one of those insects a nice souvenir, then Bones?" She turned on the spot, and wished that the reason for doing so was to apparate away, far, far, away. Barty Crouch, Sr. then turned to Sirius and greeted him.

"Hell of a start to your week off, isn't it Black?" He smiled and patted the auror's arm playfully. Sirius chuckled uncomfortably. "What a morning for you, Amelia. Come to call at your friend's house and you capture four death eaters! Well, let's go see your handiwork, shall we?" Knowing what surprise he was in for, Amelia forced herself not to mind his insensitivity at the possible loss of two of his aurors.

'Great,' she thought. 'His spirits are at an all-time high after Voldemort's death and this arrest, and you're about to drop them off a cliff.' The two aurors followed Barty to where the death eaters were being kept, bracing themselves for Crouch's reaction. 'Well, here we go.'

Unsurprisingly, Crouch froze when he got near enough to the four prisoners to see his son's face. Amelia walked around to see his face, and died a little inside when she saw a mix of the harshest heartbreak and the purest rage. His lips thinned and his eyebrows lowered, which wasn't a rare look for Barty, but the tears building up in his eyes were a first-time experience for Amelia.

She looked down from his face to his hands. The slightest movement of his wand hand put Amelia on alert. She closed the distance between herself and her boss and put her mouth to his ear.

"Mr. Crouch, I can't pretend to understand how you're feeling right now, but if you do what I think you're going to do, you will take his place in Azkaban. It may seem worth it to you, but I know that your wife would barely handle this news about her son, and if that son were to die and her husband arrested for it, it could kill her. Perhaps it's best if you let us deal with this and go be with your wife."

She backed away slowly. She couldn't tell if she had successfully persuaded him or if she had overstepped her boundary by miles, for Crouch just stood there, frozen for what seemed like years. Eventually, though, he came back to life and turned away violently.

"Get that piece of scum out of my sight!" he snarled as he walked away and disapparated.

* * *

_**Wanted: Peter Pettigrew**_

_For the crimes: _

_Belonging to the group of You-Know-Who's followers known as the Death Eaters._

_Conspiracy to commit the murders of Lily and James Potter, Gideon and Fabian Prewitt, the McKinnon Family, and the Bones Family_

_Murder of 12 muggles_

_Resisting arrest_

_Pettigrew, a local shopkeeper, is a spy of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and is suspected of giving crucial information to the Dark Lord regarding the whereabouts of numerous murder victims, all either killed by the Death Eaters or the Dark Lord himself. Upon being chased by auror Sirius Black, Pettigrew used a dangerous explosive spell that killed 12 muggles in an effort to fake his own death. Pettigrew has been revealed as a rat animagus, and will likely be hiding in this form. He is missing his left ring finger, left behind at the scene of the crime._

_**Wanted: Albus Dumbledore**_

_For the crime:_

_Kidnapping of Harry Potter_

_Resisting Arrest_

_Dumbledore, the long-time Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, sent a Hogwarts employee to Godric's Hollow on the night of You-Know-Who's death to retrieve Harry Potter, the child credited with mysteriously killing the Dark Lord. He attempted to leave the child with his muggle aunt and uncle, who were specifically forbidden to raise him by his parents, Lily and James Potter. Head Aurors Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour attempted to apprehend Dumbledore, but he fled the scene and is still at large._

Albus set the _Daily Prophet_ on his desk gently after reading his own wanted poster for the tenth time. He had failed. It was a complex plan, taking months to concoct and prepare. After finding out that one of two boys was predicted to defeat Tom Riddle, Albus started first on hunches. He first had to assume that Sybill's prophecy would come true. Already, it was looking that way. Then he had to venture an educated guess that Tom would see the half-blooded child, Harry Potter, as a bigger threat. Again, that hunch worked out, Harry having clearly been marked by the man, though in what way Albus did not know.

He knew that the Potters' friend, Peter Pettigrew, was a spy for Voldemort; anyone with even a shred of legilimency skills could see through that boy's facade. It was difficult letting the spy get away with giving up information on good witches and wizards, but he had to allow him to gain favor with the Dark Lord, and think that he could get away with spying.

He put a lot of chance into his ability to predict the actions of others, namely, Lily and James Potter, Severus Snape, and Sirius Black. Always loyal and cunning, Black was bound to not only offer himself up as a Secret-Keeper, but then come up with the brilliant scheme of making Pettigrew the actual confidant. And when that plan backfired miserably, James, ever courageous, would throw himself in Voldemort's way and lay down his life for his family, leaving Lily between Tom and Harry. Severus, of course, would give anything to protect his childhood friend, even going as far as to ask Voldemort to spare Lily. And sweet Lily was the easiest to predict, as Albus knew that her love for her son was unmatched, as is the case with many mothers around the world. When given the choice to be spared or protect her son, of course the girl chose to keep Harry safe. And by laying down her life, it not only saved Harry from certain death, it bought him and the world time.

Because while Albus was certain that Tom was still out there, Harry would have plenty of time to grow, to learn, to become the "one with the power to defeat the Dark Lord." And had last night gone successfully, even if Tom returned today, Harry would have more than fifteen years' time to become the chosen one.

Harry was supposed to live at his blood relative's home, where Albus' ingenious blood wards would protect him until he turned seventeen. The list that the Potters made of possible homes for Harry in the event of their deaths was full of good people, save for Pettigrew, but none of them would result in his safety more certainly than Petunia Dursley, whose blood was the same as the mother who protected him. He was planning on working through that list, either convincing its members that the blood wards were for the best, or, for lack of a better term, taking them out of the picture.

He assumed the Tonks', Amelia Bones, and Remus Lupin would understand Albus' logic, if he left out the less humane parts of the plan. They listened to reason, and were loyal to him, even if only one of the four was in the Order. Sirius, Albus regretfully hoped, would go mad and hunt down Pettigrew, which he did, and kill him, which he obviously failed to do, and get sent to Azkaban. That had almost worked, had Alastor been able to convince his colleagues at the Auror Department that Black was already clinically insane.

The Longbottoms, perhaps, were his biggest regret. They truly were two of the purest and most respectable individuals that he knew, but he anticipated too much loyalty to Lily's wishes on their part, being her two best friends. It was with a heavy heart that he instructed Severus to "accidentally" drop their location written by Frank's mother in front of the Lestranges, but it was a necessary evil. The Lestranges had no doubt already visited their safehouse and done Merlin knew what to those poor people.

Albus knew this was wrong. He knew that, if what the Christian muggles believed was true, he would burn in Hell for all eternity. But he had put this plan into place to give the world hope for a brighter future. Had the prophecy not presented itself to Albus, the war would either have kept on going for years, throwing wizarding Britain into even more chaos, with the world closely following it, or Voldemort would have won very soon, as the side of the light was barely holding on as it was. But he had an opportunity to not only place the current war into a much-needed hiatus, but also give the next fighters of it a hero, someone who could finally face and defeat Tom Riddle. Again, it was a shame that a few lives had to be destroyed or even ended because of it, but they were just minor casualties in the name of the greater good.

The thing that made his complicated plan so much harder was the last name of the Potters' list, one of the people that Albus thought would listen to logic and reason and see that Harry would be better off with his Aunt and Uncle. He had expected her to be easily manipulated, but he was gravely mistaken, and Harry's life was bound to be that much more dangerous because of it. Since Amelia Bones didn't listen to Albus, and instead tried to arrest him, it unraveled his carefully laid plans.

It made Albus a wanted man and took away his credibility, which he had planned to use in order to help Alastor secure Black's imprisonment. Because he couldn't very well show up at the Ministry to argue against Black's case without being arrested himself, Black was now a free man who could claim Harry as his own, and while Albus did not doubt young Sirius' ability to take care of the child, he still stood by his stance that his blood wards were the best shot at the boy's protection.

Yes, his credibility certainly was something that he planned to use when Harry grew to Hogwarts age. He had looked forward to mentoring the boy, but it wouldn't be easy to do that as a criminal who kidnapped him when he was one. It was rather disturbing to have to sneak into your own school when you ran it, avoiding your deputy headmistress and telling your groundskeeper you would meet him at his hut later when you had no intention of doing so. Hagrid was one of the best men he knew, and it pained Albus to have the last thing he told the groundskeeper be a lie, but it was necessary, as he knew that however loyal the man was, Hagrid had a soft spot for Amelia, one of his favorite students.

Albus stopped reflecting and grabbed the parchment he had been writing his letter on. There wasn't much time. He had an important visitor coming, he knew it, and he was surprised that the person had not showed up yet. He put the finishing touches on the letter, then placed it into an envelope marked "Harry."

His plan was not completely ruined, it was just in need of a little extra preparation, hence the box on the floor next to his desk, containing books, vials, and his own personal pensieve. He took from his desk drawer his old wand, which he had used up until that fateful duel so many years ago, and used his current wand to transfigure it, making both look like the current wand. Then the actual current wand was placed in the box with everything else. Albus place the lid on it, attached the letter to the lid with a sticking charm, using his old wand, then shrunk it down to the size of a muggle shoebox. Using this wand for the first time in decades gave him a delightful feeling of nostalgia. A lightening charm made the box weigh less than a feather, and he was able to lift it onto his desk. He was ready.

One might have been scared in this position, waiting for that all-important visitor to come. But not Albus. He had long since been interested in what this experience held, and he was not Tom when it came to the irrational fear of it. He merely hummed a few of his favorite muggle tunes, sucked on more than a few lemon drops, and waited, looking at the picture frame that he had put up this morning, containing a blank canvas. He whimsically wondered what color robes the painting that would soon occupying its canvas would be wearing. He hoped for a deep purple, but a navy blue would suffice as well.

Finally, the door to his office opened. "Good of you to have made it," he said to his visitor. "Sorry to say that your visit is not completely unexpected, but you'll be happy to know that this actually makes matters much simpler. For that, I thank you."

The person in the doorway did not respond. A wand was raised at Albus, green light filled his vision, and he began the next great adventure.


	4. Professor Moony

"But Rufus –"

"No, Bones," the new Director of Magical Law enforcement said for the sixth time. "Let it go. Dumbledore was old, and he died. The handful of people that knew the password to his office all have alibi's, one of which you provided to us. Even the man's painting testifies that he dropped dead of his own accord. End of story."

"I don't trust him," Amelia said from her spot on the wall, arms crossed. "This was too easy."

"A man dying is not easy. Whatever crimes the man committed, he paid for them with the ultimate price. Case closed." He added, "Maybe this was Karma actually doing its job."

They had just returned from Hogwarts, paying their obligatory respects to its headmaster at his funeral. The whole affair had been what Amelia had expected, featuring a speech from newly elected Minister Cornelius Fudge, an imbecile from the Department of Magical Catastrophes.

Following the news of his son's death eater membership just days before the election, Barty Crouch had been blown away by Fudge in the campaign. To make matters worse for him, the wizarding public called for his removal from the DMLE, and he was shifted to the Department of International Magical Cooperation, one of the most boring jobs in the Ministry.

Minister Fudge had appointed Amelia the new head, as expected by everybody, but she declined the offer, making Rufus the new director. As such, he was able to command her to stay away from the now closed Dumbledore case.

"Something still doesn't smell right, Rufus."

"I know. But now is the time to take our focus off of dead professors and give it to the living dark wizards out there. The auror department is dreadfully undermanned after the war, and we've got to get recruits – and fast. Plus, my replacement will be here shortly, and you've got to show him how the department works here."  
She sighed, giving in. "Is it that much different than the Haitian auror department?"

"Probably not," Rufus answered. "I'm sure Shacklebolt will pick it up quickly; he's the best auror they've ever had. But there are still some elements you'll need to go over with him." He leaned back in his chair and sighed. "The war's finally over, Bones, and now we've got more work to do then ever. You may not be the official director, but I'll be asking for your input from time to time. Can I count on you?"

"I'll do what I can, Rufus."

"That's all I require. I know your priority right now is Susan, so please, take care of the girl as good as I know you can, and kicking dark wizard arse had better be a strong second."

She smiled, knowing her boss wasn't going to budge, and pledging to try to let this go. Despite her annoyance, she knew that the right man had gotten the job.

* * *

Remus walked through the halls of Hogwarts for the second time an a week, not angry and thirsting for revenge like the first time, but incredibly sad.

Albus Dumbledore, while a respectable man, did have many flaws. This was coming to light in the last few months, both with his being sent to spy on the werewolves and this business with Harry almost going to the Dursleys. Amelia certainly did not trust the man, especially in the months since her family was killed; the Potters and Longbottoms trusted him out of respect, and went down believing in him as a hero. Sirius started to wane the second he almost lost Harry, and after hearing Amelia's recount of what happened the night after James died, was angry enough at the headmaster to not even be sorrowful at his death.

But for Remus, it was beyond respect, and Dumbledore would have had to do some pretty terrible things to lose Remus' trust in the man. When he thought he would never be able to learn like other wizards his age, one man had faith that he could take control of his affliction, and made the necessary arrangements for him to do so. Without Dumbledore, Remus wouldn't have met the other three marauders, giving him the happiest memories of his life. And now, that man was gone, seemingly of natural causes.

On his way to the new headmistress' office, he wondered what McGonagall could want with him. There was the obvious hope that he'd had for years now, but he didn't know how his disease would affect his performance as a teacher. Would he have to cancel classes the day after every single full moon?

He arrived at the gargoyle and spoke the password that McGonagall had given him. "Albus." It stepped aside and the wall behind it disappeared, revealing a spiral staircase. At the top, he knocked, and heard the Headmistress tell him to enter.

The office was quite emptier than when Dumbledore had used it. The numerous instruments that had once called it home were gone, replaced with simple decorations and a few pictures of former students. One of the pictures caught his eye on his way to the desk, and he had to stop to look at it. It was taken right after graduation, when students were allowed a group photo before being sent off to the rest of their lives. Of course, the four marauders gathered and posed in their last photograph as Hogwarts students. Tears threatened to escape as he looked as James' laughing face, and anger did as well as his eyes passed over Peter's slight smile.

"I didn't know whether to take the photo down," said McGonagall, reminding Remus that he wasn't alone. "I don't think I got a picture of just the three of you."

He replied, "You should keep it up. The Peter in this picture wasn't the traitor he is now."

"Any word on the hunt?"

He nodded, and headed towards the seat across her desk. "Arthur Weasley brought him into the Auror office a few days ago. Apparently his son Percy was keeping Peter the rat as a pet. He noticed the missing finger and charmed a small box to be unbreakable, then stunned and trapped him. I was with Amelia and Sirius when she got the word, and Sirius didn't even want to go. He said he knew that whatever he did or said to Pettigrew wouldn't change anything, and he had Harry to focus on now."

"It seems it took a terrible tragedy to make Mr. Black grow up," McGonagall said sadly.

"Looks to be that way. However, I actually felt sorry for Pettigrew when Amelia left to question him. He pointed the Death Eaters in the right direction to her entire family. The only worse thing he could be subjected to than Amelia are the dementors that guard his cell now."

"Indeed," McGonagall said uncomfortably, seemingly not knowing what else to say on the subject of Wormtail. He knew that James had been one of the Headmistress' favorite students in her entire teaching career, and words could not express the grief that one felt when reminded of the loss of the marauder at the hands of another.

"Getting to the point," she went on. "I have found myself an obstacle filling the vacant spot on my teaching staff. Many have applied, though I cannot say that any of them are as qualified and skilled at Transfiguration as I would like. Why was it that you didn't apply, Remus?"

Goosebumps conquered his body. Was this it? He cleared his breath. "I didn't think I would get it, to be honest. As you can imagine, my little problem might create an obstacle when it comes to having to hold classes after full moons."

"Is there not a newly crafted potion that makes your transformations more bearable?"

"Yes, Ma'am. Wolfsbane. But it's very difficult to come by, unless you're well off, and I am not."

McGonagall merely looked at him the same way that she would regard a student that had given the wrong answer in class. It wasn't a look he had seen her give him too often. Well, lucky for you, we have a multitude of potions ingredients here at Hogwarts, as well as a very high-regarded potions master who has agreed to brew the potion for you once a month. That should help your transformations and make it much easier to hold classes after them."

"B-but why –"

"You are more qualified than anybody who applied for the position, and I will not overlook you simply because you have an involuntary transformation every month, Remus. I am more than willing to have this potion brewed for you in return for the high standard of teaching that I will hold you to. Do you accept?"

Remus did not need long to think on it. His dream was to teach at Hogwarts, and the new Headmistress was helping him to achieve that dream, just as her predecessor had done for him over ten years ago. Unable to find words, he simply smiled and nodded. He noticed the portrait of the late Dumbledore trying to conceal a grin behind his feigned sleep.

"Very well," McGonagall said, matching his smile. "I will continue to teach Transfiguration on top of the Headmistress responsibilities until the Christmas holiday, after which you will be taking over. I suggest you use the time to brush up on your transfiguration knowledge, and I will see you in January. Remember, I will be holding you to very high standards right out of the gate. The fifth and seventh year students especially will need help with their coming exams. If you require any help with lesson planning or anything else, you know where to send an owl. Thank you, Professor Lupin."

He grinned at his new title and shook the Headmistress' hand enthusiastically before saying goodbye and making his way out of the castle. He knew that James was smiling on him at the moment, as it was Prongs who coined the phrase, 'Professor Moony' back in second year. Even though there were still a little less than two months left before he started, he knew he would get home plan lessons non-stop.

* * *

Taking a referral from Amelia, Sirius had decided to sell his flat and move to the muggle suburbs with Harry. This found him on a very uncomfortable chair in a poorly decorated room, across from two of his least favorite people.

"Let me get this straight," began Vernon Dursley. "You want to buy my house, the home that I've only just gotten to raise my family in, to live with your freak of a godson in? You must be daft, sir."

Sirius resituated himself to find some sort of comfortable position on the chair. It didn't work. "First of all, Vernon, referring to me, my godson, or anybody I know as a 'freak' will result in my little toy here accidentally going off." He put his wand on the table, and Dursley failed to look tough as he glared at it.

"Second," Sirius continued. "Yes, I would like to purchase this place. It's a nice neighborhood, a nice home, and a good friend of mine lives just down the street. Plus, if I buy this specific house, it means we don't have to be neighbors. I'm extremely well-off, as I've recently become the head of a very prominent family, so money won't be a problem."

As Vernon mumbled something along the lines of laughing at the idea of a family of his kind being prominent, Sirius battled with his emotions and didn't even know if he was offended for his family. At the same time that Crouch and the Lestranges were attacking the Longbottoms last week, several more attacks took place on those viewed as the dark lord's enemies by those few that were still loyal to him. The Black family had turned out to be included in that list, due to not just his own views but his brother Regulus' recent defection that ended up in his disappearance and assumed death.

Orion and Walburga, Sirius' parents, were tortured for hours and left bound and paralyzed while Antonin Dolohov and Augustus Rookwood cast the fiendfyre curse on their way out. It completely reduced Number 12, Grimmauld Place to ashes, and destroyed most of the surrounding houses before the aurors showed up and performed the counter curse. The Blacks' house-elf, Kreacher, was able to apparate out, and Sirius had forced the despised creature to help him hunt down the three death eaters responsible. After that, Amelia had made Sirius promise not to investigate or duel any more dark wizards for seven days, and his official week off was on its last afternoon.

He decided to just smile slightly at Vernon's quip, then grabbed his wand (making the man flinch) and conjured a piece of parchment and a quill. He wrote a number he thought was a lot more than reasonable and handed it across the coffee table to Vernon.

Immediately the fat man spat out and slammed the offer down and the table. "Ha! That's not even what I paid for it in the first place! Get out of my house, Black!"

Confused, Sirius grabbed the parchment and looked it over. "Ah, that's right. Blasted exchange rate. I never understood why everything can't just be the same. Luckily, it's an easy enough calculation. Multiply it by five and that's how much I'll give you."

Suddenly, Vernon froze. He stammered a bit, then turned to his previously silent wife. "Petunia!" She flinched as he turned to her, which didn't go unnoticed by the auror. A closer look at the woman's face revealed a few randoms spots where make-up had been applied just a tad too heavily. "Pour the man some tea. He's going to make us filthy rich!"

Petunia rose and went to the kitchen, while Vernon sat on the couch, giddy and unable to sit still. "I always knew there was something different about you, sir. Those that are more fortunate can always sense one another." Sirius just smiled and nodded, feeling very uncomfortable.

Petunia came back shortly with tea ready to pour and sat down. Vernon's tea was poured flawlessly, but she accidentally spilled a small amount of Sirius' on the table. Petunia's eyes filled with fear, then looked back at Vernon's narrowed pair.

Before the lump gave Sirius an excuse to curse him, Sirius cleared his throat and flicked his wand, vanishing the small puddle. "Vernon, my good man. How about you start packing? I'll have a check ready for you tonight, if you can get everything out by then."

Dursley nodded and climbed the stairs. Sirius sat in uncomfortable silence with Petunia until he quipped "Dangle a bit of money in front of him and a freak like me turns into his best friend." He raised his eyebrows with a smile as she tried to force back her own. "Petunia," he said, all humor gone. "How long's he been hitting you?"

She didn't respond, but cleared her throat and tried desperately not to make eye contact. She was sweating profusely, though her exterior still exuded superiority over him. What did his kind do to her?

Of course, Sirius knew the answer and didn't have to ask her. It was Christmas break in their seventh year at Hogwarts, and James and Lily planned a dinner at the Potter mansion so that their parents could meet each other. The night was reportedly going well, until the home was attacked by death eaters. The two witches and two wizards in the house fought their hardest to protect Mr. and Mrs. Evans, but by the time the Order of the Phoenix had arrived to help, James and Lily were the only survivors. That night was a large reason why the marauders, Lily, and the Longbottoms joined the Order the next year.

Petunia had been staying with a college friend at the time, and had to learn the news from Dumbledore the next morning. The strained relationship with her sister became nonexistent after that. Any attempts from Lily to reconcile had gone horribly wrong.

"It was easy to tell, you know," he continued. "I had an aunt once, showed all the signs you've got. Flinching when my uncle moved, terrified when she made mistakes. She was anything but decent to me, but there were times I still felt bad for her." Petunia's eyes began to fill. "You may hate our kind, and I know why. But we're not so different. Magicals have heroes and villains just like muggles do. I will say one thing, though. I don't know if my cousin's parents' relationship had everything to do with it, but she grew up to become one of Voldemort's staunchest supporters. Loyal enough to fight against Lily and James that night the three of you all lost your parents."

A tear escaped Petunia's eye, but she still didn't speak.

"I'm going to the Wizarding bank today, and I'll be withdrawing five-hundred thousand pounds and writing a check made out to Petunia Evans."

Finally, she made eye contact, and a tiny smile joined the tears now soaking her face.

"Of course, it's your choice, Petunia. If you'll let me, I can take this place off your hands, and finance a good fresh start for you and your son. I'm also pretty sure I can get the walrus out of your life, too."

"W–why would you –" She couldn't finish.

"Because two of my best friends just died a week ago. And they both would blast the bastard's bits off if they were here. I know the two of us are far from seeing eye-to-eye, and I know you still blame my kind for what happened to your parents, but you're the sister of someone who was more like family to me than anyone who shared my last name ever was. If I can do right by you, I'm honoring Lily. She deserves that. Her son deserves that."

* * *

Two weeks later, things had changed drastically for Petunia Evans. Sirius and Amelia called in favors in the Department of Muggle Relations, and the divorce from Vernon was pushed through with lightning speed. She found a very nice cottage in Godric's Hollow, on the other side of town from the destroyed Potter cottage. Sirius even found her a house-elf, charmed to be invisible to other muggles, to help take care of Dudley. She had been a bit uncomfortable with the creature at first, but she slowly grew on her.

Vernon, on the other hand, didn't fare so well. One moment, he had been happily packing his golf clubs and thinking about the new car he was going to buy, and the next, he was in a filthy alley in Norwich. Anyone he approached for help avoided him as best as they could, not waiting to associate with a man who claimed to have been moved there by wizards.

* * *

November 1982

Sirius nervously remembered a certain day by the lake:

They were a few days into 7th year, sitting under their beech tree by the lake. Three of them laughing, one of them very nervous.

After a record five months without a verbal beat-down at the hands of Lily Evans, James had decided it was time to go for it. Now, however, he was sweating bullets and pacing like a metronome.

"She gonna say no. Of course she's going to say no. Who wouldn't? Look at me."

Remus snorted. "Handsome Head Boy and quidditch captain? Yeah, Prongs. I see your point."

Unable to resist the opportunity, Sirius chimed in. "So you find our Mr. Potter handsome, then, Moony? I think Evans might have some competition."

Remus smirked and shook his head, continuing to read his book, while James continued in his misery. "There's no competition for her if she's going to say no. I'm hopeless, Padfoot. Maybe I can just hide, and when she comes down here, you guys can say I'm sick or something."

"Not gonna happen," said Peter.

"Yeah, Prongs, you're doing this and you're daft if you think Evans'll say no." He grabbed James by the shoulders and shook him. "We're the marauders, mate! Any girl is lucky to get asked to Hogsmeade by one of us. Even the ugliest of us, so you're in the clear. If I may say so, you're a complete nutter if you think you have a reason to nervous."

He looked up and saw the redhead approaching and trying to fix her hair, with the same nervousness on her face that James was exhibiting. He smiled and turned his friend around, pushing him towards his future wife. "Go get her, Prongs."

'Oh, how I'm eating my words, now, James,' thought Sirius as he sweated his own bullets, pacing in the Ministry atrium in front of the fountain. Time was moving both too fast and too slow, and he desperately wished he had James there to talk some confidence into him, or Remus to call him handsome, even though his friend was busy with classes. Finally, he saw Amelia headed towards him, glaring daggers his way.

'A little push, please? I think you owe me.' And without even a conscience thought, Sirius' feet took him towards his fellow auror. 'Thanks, Prongs.'

It had been a little over a year since the Potters' deaths, and ever since the awkward moment at the Tonks' with Amelia, the two had been in what Remus had constantly called a 'will-they-won't-they' relationship. There had been a multitude of longer-than-normal eye contact, a couple of close calls when one had almost asked the other out, and even what came dangerously close to a kiss a couple of nights ago after a play-date for Harry and Susan. And it didn't help that they lived just down the street from each other.

Finally they reached each other, and her fist reached his arm. "There you are! How dare you, Sirius! Transferring to a different team without even a notice? I thought we were friends! What is it, do you doubt my ability to lead?"

"Amelia –

"Is it because I was a Slytherin? Don't tell me Shacklebolt's a better auror than me because if that's the reason I will shove that golden house elf in the fountain up a cavity you didn't even know you had!"

"Amelia, would you –

"Don't even try to explain, Black! Apparently, you're not the man I thought you were if you're capable of doing something like this behind my back. I can't believe –

He didn't want to, but there didn't seem to be an alternative to using a silencing charm. At first, she continued her rant, then realized what he had done, and looked ready to pounce at him, but luckily he was able to hold a hand up in a plea to speak, and even luckier was the fact that she grudgingly let him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know what else would get me a window to talk." He smirked and her eyebrows raised dangerously. "I looked up the rules of the Auror Department, and it appears that Aurors on the same team can't see each other, um..." He paused to search for the correct word. "Socially." He hoped that the shocked look in her eyes was something positive. At least she no longer looked ready to send a reductor at his head.

"So I put in a request to switch to Kingsley's team, which I was told would go into affect this morning. It appears as if you've gotten the memo. So, Amelia, I was wondering, would you care to have dinner with me?" He conjured a bouquet of flowers into his hand and offered them to her, but she was too stunned to speak. Realization hit him, and he flicked his wand to cancel the silencer.

But she didn't say anything, even when she was able to. What she did made Sirius assume he had gotten a yes out of her, unless she had jumped on him and snogged the life out of him to try and suck his life out. It was his turn to be shocked, but after a moment he returned the kiss, putting all of the year's tension between them into it. He twirled her around as they kissed for Merlin knew how long, getting cheers and wolf whistles from a few Ministry people arriving for work.

* * *

A year and a half later, Amelia and Susan moved into Number 4, Privet Drive with Sirius and Harry, and two years after that, the two of them were married. They raised the two children as their own, giving them the love and support that the Potters and Bones' would have had they not been taken by war. Amelia became a legendary Auror, passing up Mad-Eye Moody's record for captured Dark Wizards, and Sirius eventually became one of the lead trainers for new Auror recruits.

Remus quickly became one of the students' favorite teachers, and after five years replaced Professor Beery, the herbology professor, as Head of Gryffindor House. He completely surprised McGonagall when his students' test scores rose above those of her previous classes when she had taught Transfiguration. That fact had quieted the few Hogwarts governors that called for his sacking due to his being a werewolf. In fact, his success at his job at Hogwarts was serving as an example of how werewolves could function in society without posing a danger to others, and quite a few anti-werewolf legislations were abolished, inspiring others like him to integrate into wizarding society.

The fall of Lord Voldemort came at a very high price for them, costing the loss of family and friends, and the betrayal of someone dear to them. But the decade following the war provided opportunities to better themselves and society. While Sirius and Amelia found love and family, Remus found his dream realized, and, along with all of Wizarding Britain, enjoyed ten years of happiness.

Ten years that the Dark Lord had to plan.


	5. Catching the Express

**Wednesday, July 31st, 1991**

The man headed down Diagon Alley, eager to get his mission done after running into that oaf Hagrid in the Leaky Cauldron. He'd made up some quick excuse and hid in Flourish and Blott's for an hour, waiting until he saw the huge man walking back through Diagon Alley towards the pub.

Finally he arrived at the giant white building. He scoffed at the warning poem in the foyer and walked past the wizards with secrecy sensors. Goblins were helping a multitude of customers, which helped him slip over to the doorway leading to the caverns. One goblin was walking towards the door as well, and he let the creature pass before pointing his wand under his robe and whispering, "Imperio."

It didn't take long for the spell to take affect. The goblin put on a content face, smiling at the relief of no longer having free will. 'Take me to a cart,' the man thought, and the goblin obliged. Luckily, the thing had not yet seen his face, and he took the opportunity once in the caverns to put up his hood and cast a spell that completely covered the inside of it in shadow, making it impossible to see his face. He got into a cart and the goblin sat in the drivers' spot.

'Vault 713, now.' Immediately, the cart took off, the goblin obeying his command and taking him to their destination at top speed. He didn't much care for these rides. The twists and turns almost made him want to vomit all over his aid, but he resisted the urge. It was only a few more minutes before they would be there. He was sure he had seen the fiery glow of a dragon's breath, and hoped that the vault he needed was not guarded by one of those monsters. Thankfully, number 713 was just an ordinary vault.

His goblin exited first, and waited for him. 'Stand guard,' he commanded. The creature obliged. This was the hard part. He had practiced the spell at home, but it took an extremely strong casting of it to make it through a Gringott's vault. His new master had taught it to him weeks ago, and yesterday he had finally been able to perform it through a solid object.

"Caligus Pervado." The uncomfortable sensation began. He felt an immense pressure on every inch of his body, and if he hadn't done this hundreds of times in the past few weeks, he would have screamed just as he had done his first twenty times. He stayed strong, however, and soon he was no more. In his place was a body of mist, which approached the vault. If he had tried what the goblins did to open the door, he would have been sucked into it and kept there forever, but he had every intention of returning to his master with the item in hand.

This was when concentration counted. It was all about will at this point. His master had warned him that losing his concentration had resulted in being trapped in a wall for many who had tried the spell. Fortunately, he made it through. Excitedly, he focused on returning to his original form, looked around the vault, and felt a feeling of dread. It was empty.

Dozens of revealing spells left his wand, each one adding a wave of despair to his panic. He let out a menacing scream that no one would hear. He should have put two and two together. Hagrid had said that he had official Hogwarts business to attend to. No doubt the fool was retrieving the stone for McGonagall. He had missed his opportunity by minutes.

He had to return to his master. There was much to do. Anger drove him back into his mist form and through the vault wall. The goblin was still waiting for him, and he commanded the stupid creature to take him back to the lobby. He didn't even feel nausea from the ride back up; he was already too sick with failure.

Once he was out of the cart, he instructed the goblin to ride the cart to the guard dragon and feed himself to it. He hadn't seen the other goblin that had noticed the tall figure in the dark hooded robe, but he heard the thing gasp. The man sighed. He aimed his wand to the goblin to obliviate him, but the creature's scream was quicker. "Thief! Thief!" The goblin snapped his finger, and all of a sudden a tiny army of goblins with spears and daggers came through the door to the lobby. The cart that was going to take the first goblin to his doom had screeched to a halt, which snapped him out of the imperius.

This was regrettable. He was hoping that it wouldn't get messy. He cast a strong gust charm at the crowd of guard goblins, and they all flew into the lobby as he followed them and made his way for the door. The two wizards with secrecy sensors took out their wands and attacked, but he easily deflected the spells and sent a cutter aimed for one's neck and a choking curse curse at the other.

One of the wizards ducked the cutting hex, but his partner collapsed, holding his throat. He aimed a blasting hex at the first wizard's feet, and it connected, blowing the man's left leg off up to the knee. He fell with a shriek and the thief smiled behind his hood and made for the doorway, apparating back to his home the second he felt the sun's rays on him.

He was physically tired, and magically exhausted. However, he knew he had to report, no matter how painful it would be. His master had been possessing a viper that slithered around his sitting room. He knelt down in front of the snake, removed his hood, and bowed his head. "My lord. I made it to the correct vault, but it seems it has already been emptied. McGonagall had sent Hagrid to retrieve the stone before I could get there."

The viper's face held no emotion, but the second he made eye contact with it, he felt his master possessing him in the way that he was used to. It was how his lord was able to give him instructions, for he couldn't speak as a snake.

'You fool!' he heard in his head. 'Can I count on you for nothing?' Suddenly, he couldn't help but scream. Every nerve in his body was put on hyperdrive, and he writhed in pain. Had he been able to think, he would have wondered how the dark lord was able to put him under the cruciatus curse from inside his head, but he knew his master was all powerful. Finally, after what could have been days, the pain stopped, so that the dark lord could speak to him.

'It seems I will need to keep a closer watch on you, Quirinus. I cannot trust you to complete your mission alone.' Quirinus Quirrel than felt something far worse than the pain he was just subjected to. Not only was his body on fire, particularly his head, but his very soul felt like it was being mutilated. Screaming did nothing. His throat was getting raw from it. He was close to biting his tongue off just to feel something different than this. This too stopped at some point, though he had lost all perception of time.

He opened his eyes and sat up. The snake was slithering about, not having the demeanor he had when his lord possessed it. This meant that his master was still in his head.

"This will have to do for now, Quirrel," his ears heard. Heard. This was not in his head. The voice was coming from behind him. Filled with terror, he turned around and saw nothing. What was going on? "Can't find me? I'm closer than you think," his master taunted.

A horrible realization came to Quirinus. He made his way to the mirror in his bathroom and look at his own horrified face. He than turned around, conjuring a hand-held mirror. Holding it up, he saw the back of his head, and would have screamed more, had his throat not been raw from it.

The Dark Lord Voldemort's face was now on the back of his head.

* * *

**Sunday, September 1st, 1991**

The Hogwarts Express chugged along the path north to its Scotland destination. Returning students were reading, joking, or trying to finish their homework at the last minute, while most first years marveled at the green hills beyond the windows. One first year, however, was trying to catch up with the great red train, and he had just made it.

Harry Potter pushed his Nimbus 2000 to its limit, and finally he caught the back of the train and began checking window after window, hoping that he had the right side. Students saw him, and either gaped at him with shocked expressions, giggled, or pointed at him. Finally, he saw his sister's red hair through one of the windows towards the front of the train and knocked on it.

"Susan." He got no response, and she just kept reading her book, so he knocked again. "Susan." His tone was getting annoyed now, as he noticed the smile creeping onto her mouth. "Susan, if it pleases you, could you grant me access to the compartment?" he asked cordially, hoping that she'd be able to hear him, and he wasn't talking to her for nothing.

She proved she could hear him by speaking, and which he heard perfectly. "And how would that be funny?"

"Godawful woman," said Harry. He was bitter, though he did admit to himself that he would find the situation hilarious from the other side of the glass. His pushed his broom onward to the next window, and took stock of the boys in the next compartment. One of them had bright blonde hair slicked back, and a haughty demeanor. The other two resembled bald gorillas, and had to be the blonde's bodyguards. He took a chance and knocked on their window, asking them to open it.

The blonde got the attention of the other two, put on a sneaky expression and aimed his wand at the window, casting what Harry guessed was a lumos charm. The bright light forced him to cover his eyes with his arm, and his broom veered off to the left. When he finally looked up, he could see a tree in his path, and he swerved away at the last minute. Eyes narrowing, he resituated his Nimbus and sped off towards the train to close the distance again.

It took a few minutes, but he caught up to the Hogwarts Express once again and knocked on the first window he reached. Inside was a girl with extremely bushy hair, who like Susan had been reading. She looked up when he knocked, and almost fell off of her seat.

"A little help?" he asked her. She nodded and unlatched the window. The opening was barely big enough to fit him, and it was extremely hard getting in while keeping the broom going the same speed as the train, but he managed.

"Are you insane!?" exclaimed the girl, glaring at him. "You could have been killed! First years aren't even allowed brooms, you know!"

"Sorry about that," he said. "I was running a little late and missed the train. It was actually my godfather's idea. Pretty cool, though, right?"

She just smirked at him. It was obvious she was a stickler for the rules, and while Harry thought that no one could have been crazy enough to inspire a rule about what he'd done, it still counted as rule-breaking to her.

She gaped as he screwed up his messy hair and accidentally revealed his forehead. "You're Harry Potter!"

"Oh," he answered. "Yup. That's my name."

"I read about you in about five books when I found out I was a witch!"

"That's... interesting," he said, slowly. Harry was far from shy, but the attention from witches and wizards was getting to be a bit old. He liked to earn attention, not have it handed to him. "And your name is?"

"Oh, goodness, I'm sorry," she said, and held out her hand. "Hermione Granger. It's nice to meet you."

"You, too. Sorry to freak you out with the broom. Just a minute." He grabbed a mirror from his pocket and said, "Sirius Black."

His godfather's face appeared. "Hey kiddo! You make it okay?"

"What is that?" Hermione asked as she joined him on his side of the compartment. She gasped as she saw Sirius. "That's amazing!"

"And who is this?" asked Sirius.

"Hermione Granger, sir." She said softly. "Forgive me, but are you _the_ Sirius Black, the auror?"

"Right you are, madam. I didn't realize I had me a fan club"

"I've read about you, too. You fought in the war against You-Know-Who."

"That I did. Smart new friend you've got, Harry."

Finally, he could rejoin the conversation. "She did rescue me from the terrors of flying at ninety miles an hour. Great idea to try and catch the train on a broom, by the way. Susan thought it was funny to pretend not to hear me, then some prat blinded me with a spell and I almost crash-landed into a tree. Hermione here finally let me in."

Sirius was chuckling. "What Susan did reminds me of a prank we pulled when James tried to fly into Gryffindor Tower from Quidditch practice. We refused to let him in and he had to fly to your mum's window, and she gave him quite the berating when she finally let him in."

"Hilarious," Harry said dryly. "And high speeds just contribute loads to the comedy. How do I cancel this shrinking charm again?" He dug into his pocket and pulled out his wand as well as a very small trunk and owl cage.

It was Hermione who answered. "Finite incantatem," she said from her side of the compartment, which she had moved back to.

"Correction, Harry. That is a very smart new friend you've got," Sirius said from the mirror, making Hermione blush.

"Do you mind if I try?" she asked. "I haven't gotten the chance to do any magic yet, and I've been dying to ever since I got my wand."

Harry nodded. She smiled excitedly and cleared her throat. "Finite incantatem." Right away, Harry's belongings grew to normal size. Her subsequent grin would have made one think it was Christmas morning, and Harry had no choice but to sport a grin of his own.

"Thanks for the refresher, Sirius," he said to his godfather.

"Anytime, kiddo. Let me know how the sorting goes, and make sure a dung-bomb makes its way into the prat's compartment."

He laughed at that. "As long as I've got permission. See ya." He placed the mirror back into his pocket, then reached for his broom and tapped a red sticker with his hand, making it shrink to the size of his finger.

Hermione was once again in awe. "What was that?"

"Well, I know we don't learn shrinking charms until later on, so I used a shrinking patch. My godfather's best friend created them. He made loads of things that are programmed with a specific spell, and they're now in the testing phase before he sells them to shops, so me and my sister both got one to use. Now I can shrink my broom to look like a model of a broom. First years are allowed to have model brooms, right?" he asked slyly.

It seemed the advanced magic distracted Hermione from Harry's rule-breaking. "That's genius! Something like that would be amazing to have during the holidays when we can't do magic! Who did you say made it?"

"My godfather's best friend, Remus. You'll probably get to know him better if you get sorted into Gryffindor, seeing as he's the head."

"Professor Lupin? He's supposed to be a really good teacher. A lot of werewolf-rights movements have been inspired by him. I can't believe you know him."

"Yeah, he's just been Uncle Remus to me growing up. My godfather and him are hysterical when you get them together. Hard to shut them up though."

Hermione laughed at the thought of a teacher being fun and hysterical, and the two of them talked for quite a while until the compartment door slid open.

A very nervous-looking kid who looked about their age had opened it. "Excuse me", he began slowly. "Have you seen my toad, Trevor, around here? I seem to have lost him."

"Haven't seen a toad, mate," said Harry. "You?" he asked Hermione.

"No, sorry." She looked around the floors to try and be helpful, but it was obvious that there was nothing there.

"Figures," the boy said. "My gran's gonna kill me. She wouldn't get me an owl, because she said I wasn't responsible enough. She said if I could take care of Trevor for the school year and not lose him, I could get one next year."

"We could help you look on the rest of the train," Hermione offered. She looked to Harry, who shrugged in approval.

"Thanks," said the boy. "You're actually the last compartment, though. I'm not sure where else to look."

"Sorry about that, mate," Harry said, trying to sound comforting.

"I'm sure he'll turn up," he answered. "I'm Neville Longbottom." He held his hand out to Hermione, then Harry.

"Hermione Granger."

"Harry Potter." He tried ignoring Neville's widened expression and quick glance up to his scar. "I think my godparents said they've tried to contact your grandmother about my sister and me meeting you, but I guess she never finds time or something."

"Yeah, she doesn't really let me out much. She's pretty protective. I'm glad we're meeting now though."

"You're godmother is Amelia Bones, right, Harry? The famous auror?" Hermione asked. Harry smiled at her habit of asking questions.

"The one and only," he answered. "I think I had another godmother before, but I'm not sure who. Amelia helped Sirius raise me, though, so I refer to her as my godmother to avoid confusion, since 'godfather's wife' is more of a mouthful. And her niece Susan, grew up with me, so she's pretty much my sister. Quite a complicated family, eh?"

"I would say a family's a family," said Neville.

"Wisely put. Want to go meet my sister?" Both Neville and Hermione nodded and they took off to the front of the train.

* * *

Susan Bones worried about Harry for a few minutes after he flew past her window and almost hit a tree, but calmed down when she tried to mirror-call him and saw that his mirror was busy, most likely with Sirius. She then giggled at her prank and hoped that his retaliation wouldn't be so terrible.

Harry and Susan had agreed that their time Hogwarts would become much more fun if they tried to get sorted into different houses and rallied their housemates into a prank-war, inspired by countless tales from Sirius and Remus of their own days at the school and the numerous pranks that they played. It seemed that she was able to strike first, not letting him into her compartment, but now it was his turn, and she shuddered at the thought.

Laughing at herself, she delved back into the book she was reading, until the compartment slid open a while later. Earlier, someone had come in to ask if she'd seen his toad, so she had expected it to be him again. But a different boy poked his head in. "Mind if I join you?"

"Sure," she answered, barely looking up from her book, as she was at a good part. He put his trunk onto the railing above and sat on the other side of the compartment, taking out a book of his own. A few minutes passed before she spoke again. "The train's been on it's way for about forty five minutes. Where were you before?"

"I started out in a compartment with two very chatty girls, and I couldn't stand the gossip much longer."

She smiled at that and turned her page. It was usually easy to multitask for her, and she could concentrate on her reading as well as carry a conversation. "I hope I'm not too quiet for you, otherwise you'll have to leave this compartment and find a nice middle ground."

"Let's hope not." He turned a page too, seemingly able to multitask as well. That was where their conversation ended for a while as they both became lost in their own books. "I'm Sam by the way," he said after about twenty minutes. "Sam Remington."

"Susan Bones." She held her hand out and shook his, then in an attempt to avoid being rude, tried to find another subject to talk about. She glanced at the spine of his book. "Steinbeck, that's a muggle author right?"

"Yup. My mom's a muggle, and my dad was a wizard, but he died when I was one, so I was raised away from magic. I actually just found out about all of this a few months ago, and before that I had no idea how to explain all the crazy stuff I did growing up. How do you know this author?"

"Well, my aunt and uncle raised me and they're both pure-blooded, but they really seem to like finding a balance between muggle and magical living. I might even prefer muggle books, actually. I've been meaning to start reading Steinbeck for a while but I've got a really long to-read list."

Sam nodded. "I know what you mean. If you ever get a chance to start, I can let you borrow this one. So, do you know how we get sorted? My mum said she knew but she thought it'd be funny to surprise me. Made it seem like we'd be tested somehow. I've barely used my wand so far, I hope we don't have to do a certain spell."

"Unfortunately, my family has the same sense of humor. My brother's a first-year, too, and we've been racking our minds over it, and asking every adult we know, but it hasn't worked out. Apparently it's a fun little tradition to keep us in the dark until the sorting. Even Hogwarts: A History doesn't mention it." Susan smirked and shrugged.

"Oh, you have a brother? Where's he at?"

"In all but blood. He's my uncle's godson and we grew up together. But they were both late to the train, so he had to," she paused to clear her throat and find the right way to put it. "Take an alternate route."

"And think how easier my alternate route would have been if you'd just opened the window," said a voice from the hall. Apparently Harry had opened the compartment as quietly as possible. He was accompanied by a girl with bushy brown hair and the boy who had lost his toad.

Susan smirked, then smiled. "Speak of the devil. Sam Remington, this is my brother, Harry." The two boys nodded at each other in acknowledgment, then shook hands. Susan noticed Harry's relief that Sam didn't even show the slightest look of recognition, and couldn't help but smile. "Who are your new friends?"

The girl stepped forward and shook hands with both her and Sam. "Hermione Granger."

Harry interjected. "Also known as my savior after you failed to let me in your compartment, my traitorous sister."

"Am I missing something?" asked Sam.

"I'm confused too," the other boy added. "Neville Longbottom, by the way." He waved to both of them. What happened with the window?"

Susan laughed and waved back before explaining. "Mr. Daring over here decided to make up for being late to the train by catching it - on his brand new broom."

"Which flies like a dream, by the way," Harry added.

Susan rolled her eyes and continued. When it came to the point of Harry passing her window, he took the story over and told of his encounter with the boy in the next compartment, almost crashing, and catching back up with the train and meeting Hermione. Hermione just rolled her eyes at certain parts of the story that Harry slightly embellished, while Sam and Neville sported awed expressions at him.

The three newcomers joined her and Sam in the compartment, girls on one side and boys on the other. They all shared their own histories, from Neville's purely magical upbringing to Hermione and Sam's muggle childhoods to Harry and Susan's mix of both. Laughing broke out as they tried brainstorming how they thought they would be sorted, and each idea was more farfetched than the one before, from a simple test of magical knowledge to having to slay a dragon.

Harry was just relaying one of the maruaders' many tales when the compartment door opened once again, rather forcefully. A very uptight-looking boy walked in, followed by two burly boys who looked more like bodyguards then companions. This had to be the group from the next compartment over that Harry had spoken of. Though they looked as young as she and Harry were, Susan thought that they must have been older than them, since they already wore their school robes with the Slytherin colors.

"It's true, then," the lead boy said. "Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts."

"Actually, mate, I haven't gotten there yet. Still on the train, as you can see," Harry replied. "Thanks for earlier, by the way. I haven't had a near-death experience in ages, so I appreciate it."

The boy just stared at Harry through narrowed eyes, obviously not bright enough to decipher his sarcasm. Finally, he held his hand out. "Forgive the misunderstanding. I'm Draco Malfoy. We are the two most powerful wizards in this school now, and we should stick together. There are those that are less worthy than others, as you can see. I can introduce you to those of us that are superior" he looked down upon Sam, Susan, Hermione, and Neville with disdain. Susan didn't know very many spells yet, but she still was about to reach for a wand and just point and hope he'd get hexed. Both her and Harry had heard about the Malfoy family from Amelia and Sirius, and knew that they were bad news.

"Oh, yes, Mr. Malfoy," Harry said. "I can already tell that some of us are less worthy. For example, nobody here almost killed me this morning. Also, none of us have parents that have licked the boots of any dark lords."

With that, Malfoy's wand was drawn, as was the wand of every person in the compartment, with the exception of Neville, who had dropped his.

Harry had apparently decided that taunting Malfoy even further was a wise decision. "Go on, show me what else you know besides the little night-light charm." Susan was looking nervously around the compartment, hoping that their first day would not include a mass duel in a crammed compartment. She then saw that her brother had something in his other hand. She gave a slight smile and almost rolled her eyes. He knew what he was doing.

Malfoy just stared at Harry for a while before saying, "It seems you've made your choice, Potter. You're not worth my time today, but know that I can be a very dangerous enemy." And with that, he turned and shoved his escorts out of the compartment. Very quickly, Harry reached over and dropped what Susan assumed was a dung-bomb into Malfoy's pocket.

Neville had noticed it. "What did you put in his pocket, Harry?"

"It was a dung-bomb, with a little improvement from our Uncle Remus. All I need to do is think of a good time to activate it with the trigger spell."

"And what is the trigger spell?" Hermione asked, seeming half annoyed by the prank and half intrigued by the magic.

Susan decided to answer. "My uncle actually got to choose it." She had to force back her laugh. "And he chose the name that came to mind when he thought of the smell of a dung-bomb: Snivellus."

**a/n **Please, as always, tell me what you think. Thanks so much for reading!


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